Video: 'Iraq Invades Kuwait - 8/2/1990'

(Thursday, August 2, 1990, 2:00 a.m. Arabia Standard Time; during the Invasion of Kuwait, part of the Gulf War and the Persian Gulf Conflicts) — After weeks of tension over disputed land and oil production quotas, Iraqi troops crossed the Kuwait border early this morning and penetrated deeply into the country and into Kuwait’s capital city, senior Administration officials said late Aug. 1, 1990.

Early reports were that casualties were extensive, an official at the Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington said.

A Bush administration official said that Iraqi forces had driven far into Kuwait, a neighboring oil-rich sheikdom, and were in Kuwait city, the seaport capital, as of 5 a.m.

Video: 'CNN Report 1st Day of Invasion on Kuwait'

The invasion and Iraq’s subsequent refusal to withdraw from Kuwait by a deadline mandated by the United Nations would lead to military intervention by a United Nations-authorized coalition of forces led by the United States.

These events came to be known as the first Gulf War and resulted in the expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and the Iraqis setting 600 Kuwaiti oil wells on fire during their retreat.