Battle for Chafji

Battle of Chafji

Part of: Second Gulf War

Military situation

date	January 29, 1991 to February 1, 1991
place	Chafji , Saudi Arabia
Casus Belli	Iraqi troops capture Khafjis
output	Victory of the Saudi allies
consequences	Withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Saudi Arabia

Parties to the conflict
Iraq	Saudi Arabia Qatar USA
Commander
Salah Abud Mahmud	Sultan al-Mutairi Salih al-Muhaia
losses
Up to 300 dead and 400 prisoners	43 dead and 52 wounded

Saudi F15 is refueled by a US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker after a combat mission

The Battle of Chafji was the first major infantry battle in the Second Gulf War .

The fight began after three Iraqi divisions (weakened by allied bombing since January 17) unexpectedly entered the industrial city of Khafji ( Arabic الخفجي, DMG al-Ḫafǧī , according to the English transcription Khafji ) attacked and captured in Saudi Arabia on the border with Kuwait .

In response, the Saudi Air Force attacked Iraqi positions with F-15 fighter jets . Subsequently, ground troops of the Saudi armed forces and those of Qatar launched an offensive and drove the Iraqi troops out of Chafji. Saudi Arabia deployed 40,000 soldiers and Qatar 2,000 soldiers in the ground offensive. Two Qatari AMX-30 main battle tanks and at least seven Saudi V-150 reconnaissance tanks were destroyed by the Iraqis.

AC-130H Specter Gunship

The US supported the offensive with artillery fire and air strikes. A division of the Republican Guard fought on the Iraqi side . Both sides deployed tanks . During the Battle of Chafji, a Lockheed AC-130H Specter Gunship was shot down by the Iraqi air defense when, contrary to their operational doctrine, it was used in daylight. This was the only documented loss of one of these machines due to the war (as of July 15, 2012).

swell

• The Battle of Khafji: An Overview and Preliminary Analysis . 1996.
• Hedges, Chris: War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning . New York: Anchor Books, 2003, ISBN 1-4000-3463-9 .
• Morris, David J .: Storm on the Horizon: Khafji-The Battle that Changed the Course of the Gulf War . New York: Free Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7432-3557-6 .
• Pollack, Kenneth M .: Arabs at war: military effectiveness, 1948–1991 . Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8032-8783-6 .
• www.afa.org

Coordinates: 28 ° 25 ′ 0 ″  N , 48 ° 30 ′ 0 ″  E