|
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url =http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/al-douri.htm )〕 Salah Aboud Mahmoud |units1 = Saudi National Guard 1st Marine Division 2nd Marine Division 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion 2nd Armored Division United States Army Special Forces|units2 = 1st Mechanized Division 3rd Armored Division 5th Mechanized Division |casualties1 = 43 dead. 52 wounded. 2 captured.〔〔 1 AC-130 shot down. |casualties2 = 60–300 dead. 400 captured. 90 armored vehicles destroyed.〔〔 }} The Battle of Khafji was the first major ground engagement of the Persian Gulf War. It took place in and around the Saudi Arabian city of Khafji, from 29 January to 1 February 1991 and marked the culmination of the Coalition's air campaign over Kuwait and Iraq, which had begun on 17 January 1991. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who had already tried and failed to draw Coalition troops into costly ground engagements by shelling Saudi positions and oil storage tanks and firing Scud surface-to-surface missiles at Israel, ordered the invasion of Saudi Arabia from southern Kuwait. The 1st and 5th Mechanized Divisions and 3rd Armored Division were ordered to conduct a multi-pronged invasion toward Khafji, engaging American, Saudi and Qatari forces along the coastline. These three divisions, which had been heavily damaged by Coalition aircraft in the preceding days, attacked on 29 January. Most of their attacks were repulsed by U.S. Marines as well as U.S. Army Rangers and Coalition aircraft, but one of the Iraqi columns occupied Khafji on the night of 29–30 January. Between 30 January and 1 February, two Saudi Arabian National Guard battalions and two Qatari tank companies attempted to retake control of the city, aided by Coalition aircraft and American artillery. By 1 February, the city had been recaptured at the cost of 43 Coalition servicemen dead and 52 wounded. Iraqi Army fatalities numbered between 60 and 300, while an estimated 400 were captured as prisoners of war. The battle serves as a modern demonstration that air power in a supporting role to ground forces can be of great assistance in halting and defeating a major ground operation. It was also a major test of the Saudi and Qatari armies. Although the capture of Khafji was a propaganda victory for the Ba'athist Iraqi government, its subsequent recapture by Saudi and Qatari ground forces provided a major morale boost for Coalition forces. ==Background== On 2 August 1990, the Iraqi Army invaded and occupied the neighboring state of Kuwait.〔Lewis, p. 481.〕 The invasion, which followed the inconclusive Iran–Iraq War and three decades of political conflict with Kuwait, offered Saddam Hussein the opportunity to distract political dissent at home and add Kuwait's oil resources to Iraq's own, a boon in a time of declining petroleum prices.〔Halliday, p. 226. At the time, Iraq's own reserves were second only to Saudi Arabia's.〕 In response, the United Nations began to pass a series of resolutions demanding the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.〔Perrett, p. 199.〕 Afraid that Saudi Arabia would be invaded next, the Saudi government requested immediate military aid.〔Perrett, pp. 199–200.〕 As a result, the United States began marshalling forces from a variety of nations, styled the Coalition, on the Arabian peninsula.〔Halliday, p. 223.〕 Initially, Saddam Hussein attempted to deter Coalition military action by threatening Kuwait's and Iraq's petroleum production and export. In December 1990, Iraq experimented with the use of explosives to destroy wellheads in the area of the Ahmadi loading complex, developing their capability to destroy Kuwait's petroleum infrastructure on a large scale. On 16 January, Iraqi artillery destroyed an oil storage tank in Khafji, Saudi Arabia, and on 19 January the pumps at the Ahmadi loading complex were opened, pouring crude oil into the Persian Gulf. The oil flowed into the sea at a rate of 200,000 barrels a day, becoming one of the worst ecological disasters to that date.〔Freedman & Karsh, p. 29.〕 Despite these Iraqi threats, the Coalition launched a 38-day aerial campaign on 17 January 1991.〔 Flying an estimated 2,000 sorties a day,〔Freedman & Karsh, pp. 24–25.〕 Coalition aircraft rapidly crippled the Iraqi air defense systems and effectively destroyed the Iraqi Air Force,〔Biddle, pp. 144–145.〕 whose daily sortie rate plummeted from a prewar level of an estimated 200 per day to almost none by 17 January.〔Freedman & Karsh, p. 27.〕 On the third day of the campaign, many Iraqi pilots fled across the Iranian border in their aircraft rather than be destroyed.〔Freedman & Karsh, pp. 27–28.〕 The air campaign also targeted command-and-control sites, bridges, railroads, and petroleum storage facilities.〔Lewis, pp. 493–495.〕 Saddam Hussein, who is believed to have said, "The air force has never decided a war," nevertheless worried that the air campaign would erode Iraq's national morale. The Iraqi leader also believed that the United States would not be willing to lose many troops in action, and therefore sought to draw Coalition ground troops into a decisive battle.〔Freedman & Karsh, p. 28.〕 In an attempt to provoke a ground battle, he directed Iraqi forces to launch Scud missiles against Israel, while continuing to threaten the destruction of oilfields in Kuwait.〔Freedman & Karsh, pp. 29–30.〕 These efforts were unsuccessful in provoking a large ground battle,〔Freedman & Karsh, p. 30.〕 so Saddam Hussein decided to launch a limited offensive into Saudi Arabia with the aim of inflicting heavy losses on the Coalition armies.〔Titus, p. 4.〕 As the air campaign continued, the Coalition's expectations of an Iraqi offensive decreased. As a result, the United States redeployed the XVIII Airborne Corps and the VII Corps 480 kilometers (300 mi) to the west. The Coalition's leadership believed that should an Iraqi force go on the offensive, it would be launched from the al-Wafra oil fields, in Southern Kuwait.〔Titus, p. 5.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Khafji」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|