The Iran-Iraq War: The Original Gulf War, which is the 1st Gulf War

On January 17th 1991, the skies over Kuwait and Iraq roared with the largest and most sophisticated air armada in history.

Their mission was to destroy the army of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who in August of the previous year had seized the tiny oil-rich kingdom of Kuwait in order to plunder its wealth.

Remembered in the west as the Gulf War, this conflict was preceded by another major war in the Persian Gulf in which Iraq fought an eight-year-long struggle with its powerful eastern neighbour Iran. Given the events of the region that would come in the 1990s and up to the present day, many around the world now overlook this important chapter of history. It is a story of revolution. Of political ambition

Of political ambition. Of behind-the-scenes scheming and the cost of all those things paid for in blood.