<Li> 6 December: Iraq releases 3,000 foreign hostages from Kuwait and Iraq </Li> <Li> 10 December: Iraq releases British hostages </Li> <Ul> <Li> 9 January: United States Secretary of State James Baker meets Foreign Minister of Iraq Tariq Aziz at the Geneva Conference in Hotel InterContinental without any solution . </Li> <Li> January 12: U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution authorizing the use of military force in Iraq and Kuwait . The votes were' 52 for and 47 against in the U.S. Senate and 250 - 183 in the House of Representatives . These was the closest margins in authorizing force by the Congress since the War of 1812 . </Li> <Li> 12 January: United Nations Secretary - General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar meets Saddam Hussein in Baghdad without any agreement with the Government of Iraq on withdrawing from Kuwait . </Li> <Li> 12 January: Soviet special envoy Yevgeny Primakov meets Saddam Hussein in Baghdad about the possible Coalition invasion of Kuwait </Li> <Li> 15 January: Saddam Hussein announces that Iraq will consider withdrawing its troops from Kuwait under some conditions </Li> <Li> 15 January: 580,000 Coalition troops are stationed in the Gulf region against 540,000 Iraqi troops . </Li> <Li> 15 January: First U.S. government statement of Operation Desert Storm made . </Li> <Li> 15 January: Iraq ignores all the UN resolutions </Li> <Li> January 16: Coalition forces lead by the U.S. start deploying into Kuwait through the Persian Gulf and the Saudi Arabian border, starting the first official infantry combat </Li> <Li> 17 January: Foreign Minister of Iraq Tariq Aziz meets President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow where they discuss the Soviet peace plan </Li> <Li> 17 January: Operation Desert Storm is launched . First air attacks are launched on Iraq and Kuwait . </Li> <Li> 18 January: 01: 00 GMT; Iraq fires 12 scud missiles at Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv, killing 12 people . United States tells Israel not to retaliate to the scud attack due to the risk of expanding the war and breaking up of the Arab Coalition . The U.S. deploys Patriot missiles to Israel and Saudi Arabia . </Li> <Li> 21 January: Foreign Minister of Iraq Tariq Aziz accepts the Soviet peace plan . President Bush refuses the peace plan as unrealistic for the coalition . </Li> <Li> 22 January: Iraq burns Kuwaiti oil fields . About 600 oil fields are on fire </Li> <Li> 24 January: Iraq continues to burn Kuwaiti oil fields and dumps the oil into the Persian Gulf </Li> <Li> 24 January: Coalition forces capture the small Kuwaiti island of Qaruh . </Li> <Li> 25 January: Iraqi troops dumped millions of gallons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf . </Li> <Li> 29 January: United States and the Soviet Union offer a ceasefire to Iraq if it withdraws all its troops from Kuwait . </Li> <Li> 29 January: Iraqi forces invaded the town of Khafji in Saudi Arabia . Iraqi forces were soon engaged by Saudi Arabian and Qatari troops with help from U.S. Marines . </Li> <Li> 30 January: Coalition starts its first land operations in Kuwait and Southern Iraq . </Li> <Li> 1 February: Iraqi forces are driven out of Saudi Arabia . </Li> <Li> 22 February: U.S. President George H.W. Bush issues a 24 - hour ultimatum: Iraq must withdraw from Kuwait to avoid start of a ground war . </Li> <Li> 23 February: President of the United States George H.W. Bush calls on Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait before starting Operation Desert Storm </Li> <Li> 24 February: Ground war begins when U.S. - led Coalition forces invaded Iraq and Kuwait at around 4 a.m. Baghdad time . British Special Air Service was the first to enter Iraqi territory . </Li> <Li> 25 February: 20 000 Iraqi troops surrender to the coalition . By the end of February, about 100 000 Iraqi troops will have surrendered . </Li> <Li> 25 February: Iraq launches scud missile attacks to Dhahran in Saudi Arabia which kills 28 American troops and injures 98 civilians . </Li> <Li> 26 February: President of Iraq Saddam Hussein announces at Radio Baghdad report that Iraq will withdraw from Kuwait totally and excepts the UN resolution . Saddam still does not renounce Iraqi claims over Kuwait . </Li> <Li> 26 February: About 10,000 retreating Iraqi troops were killed when Coalition aircraft bombed their stolen civilian and military vehicles . This is called the Highway of Death . </Li> <Li> 26 February: Iraqi troops flees from Kuwait City </Li> <Li> 27 February: U.S. Marines and Saudi Arabian troops entered Kuwait City . </Li> <Li> 27 February: President Bush announced that the Liberation of Kuwait has started and the cessation of hostilities will end at 04: 00 GMT the same day </Li> <Li> 27 February: Coalition announces that they have destroyed almost of the half of the all Iraqi divisions and 500,000 Iraqi troops has been taken as PWOs . </Li> <Li> 28 February: President of the United States George H.W. Bush announces ceasefire and that Kuwait is free and Iraqi Army is defeated . </Li> <Li> 28 February: Iraq announces that it will accept all UN resolutions . </Li> <Li> March 1: A cease - fire plan is negotiated in Safwan, Iraq . </Li> <Li> March 3: Iraq accepts the terms of a ceasefire from the U.N. Security Council . </Li> <Li> 6 March: Shiia rebellion starts in Basra </Li> <Li> 13 March: Secretary of State of the United States James Baker meets President of Syria Hafez Al - Assad in Damascus to discuss future Middle East issues </Li> <Li> 14 March: Anti-Saddam rebellion continues in Iraq </Li> <Li> 30 March: First Arab League summit starts in Cairo after the Kuwaiti invasion . Iraqi delegation also takes part in the summit </Li> <Li> 3 April: Iraqi army massacres Kurds in Northern Iraq </Li> <Li> 11 April: Armistice is signed between Coalition and Iraqi Army . </Li> <Li> 7 April: Kuwaiti Emir promises elections in Kuwait in 1992 </Li> <Li> 14 April: Emir of Kuwait Jaber Al - Ahmad Al - Sabah returns to Kuwait </Li> <Li> 17 April: U.S. troops enter Northern Iraq from Turkey to protect Kurdish refugees </Li> <Li> 15 June: 29 people are accused of co-operating with the Iraqi forces, and are executed in Kuwait . </Li> <Li> 16 August: UN repeals some Iraqi sanctions; Iraq is allowed to produce oil, limited to about 1, 6 billion USD per barrel . </Li> <Li> 30 August: Kuwaiti Air Force attacks Iraqi destroyer in the Gulf </Li> <Li> 7 November: Last Kuwaiti oil fire is put out </Li> </Ul> <Li> 9 January: United States Secretary of State James Baker meets Foreign Minister of Iraq Tariq Aziz at the Geneva Conference in Hotel InterContinental without any solution . </Li>

Persian gulf war timeline of operation desert storm