Highway of Death
Part of the Gulf War
Portion of the "Mile of Death" in April 1991
Date February 26 – March 2, 1991 Location Between Kuwait City and Basra Result Decisive U.S. victory
Belligerents
United States	Iraq

The Highway of Death refers to a road between Kuwait and Iraq, officially known as Highway 80. It runs from Kuwait City to the border towns of Abdali (Kuwait) and Safwan and then on to Basra.

During the United Nations Coalition offensive in the Gulf War, retreating Iraqi military personnel were attacked on Highway 80 by American aircraft and ground forces on the night of February 26–27, 1991, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of vehicles. The scenes of carnage on the road are some of the most recognisable images of the war. The road was repaired during the late 1990s, and was used in the initial stages of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S. and British forces.

[edit] "Highway of Death"

A column of bombed-out vehicles on Highway 8 to Basra

A rusting Type 59 tank at the Highway of Death (February 2003)

Remnants of the destroyed convoy on the Highway of Death with a Type 59 in the foreground (February 2003)

Rusting wrecks from the Highway of Death in a vehicle "graveyard" north of Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait (2005)

U.S. attacks against the Iraqi columns were conducted on two different roads: some 1,400-2,000 vehicles hit on the main Highway 80 north of Al Jahra (the "actual" Highway of Death) and, few days later, another 400-700 or so on the much-less known coastal road to Basra.

On the main highway, aircraft bombed the front and rear of the massive vehicle column of Iraqi Regular Army, trapping the convoy, and leaving sitting targets for later airstrikes. When visited by journalists the main highway had been reduced to a long uninterrupted line of destroyed, damaged, and abandoned vehicles, sometimes called the Mile of Death. The wreckage consisted of both military vehicles (such as tanks and armored personnel carriers) and civilian vehicles (such as cars, trucks, and buses).

The offensive action for which the road is infamous became a controversial point, with some commentators alleging that the use of force was disproportionate, as the Iraqi forces were retreating and the column included Kuwaiti captives (apparently to be used as hostages^[1]) as well as civilian refugees.

General Norman Schwarzkopf commented in 1995:^[2]

United States Air Force Major General Mark Welsh, in a 1999 speech recalling his Gulf War experiences to Air Force cadets, described his experience strafing and bombing the stopped convoy:^[3]

According to the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, the "shooting gallery" scenes of carnage was the reason to end the Gulf War hostilities after the liberation of Kuwait. He wrote later in his autobiography My American Journey that "the television coverage was starting to make it look as if we were engaged in slaughter for slaughter's sake."

According to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, however, "appearances were deceiving":^[4]

Photojournalist Peter Turnley published photographs of mass burials at the scene;^[5] Turnley wrote:

Time magazine concluded:^[1]

[edit] In popular culture

The 2005 film Jarhead, based on the 2003 book, contains a scene of the Highway of Death.

Stock footage of destruction at the Highway is also featured in the music video of Iron Maiden's "Afraid to Shoot Strangers" from their 1992 album Fear of the Dark.

In 1991, British newspaper The Guardian commissioned British anti-war poet Tony Harrison commemorating the war, and in particular the Highway of Death.^[6] His poem, A Cold Coming, began with an ekphrasic representation of a grotesque and graphic photograph taken on the Highway by photojournalist Keith Jarecke.

In the National Museum of the US Air Force, a Lockheed AC-130 dubbed Azrael that participated in the Highway of Death is displayed along with text stating that the "crew of this AC-130A Spectre gunship, named "Azrael" (Azrael, in the Koran, is the Angel of Death who severs the soul from the body) displayed courage and heroism during the closing hours of Operation Desert Storm."^[7]

[edit] See also

• Anglo-Iraqi War
• Hell's Highway
• Falaise pocket

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Photographs of destroyed military equipment taken by a contemporary American serviceman
• A high-resolution map of Kuwait. Highway 80 leads north from Kuwait city, via al-Jahra
• Clip from a CBC news broadcast depicting the incident's aftermath

Coordinates: 29°23′03″N 47°39′06″E / 29.3842°N 47.6518°E / 29.3842; 47.6518