Quick questions on Impact of the Gulf conflicts on civilians: HSC Modern History Conflict in the Gulf

Total Iranian civilian war deaths are estimated at 100,000 to 200,000. Iraqi civilian war deaths at 50,000 to 100,000. The major causes.

The al-Anfal campaign against the Iraqi Kurds (February 1986 to September 1989) under Ali Hassan al-Majid had eight phases. Around 4,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed by ground forces, aerial bombing, and chemical attacks. Around 50,000 to 100,000 Kurds were killed in operations and in subsequent mass executions of captured males. Around 1.5 million Kurds were displaced from their villages to new towns ("mujamma'at") and Arab-resettled districts.

During the August 1990 to February 1991 Iraqi occupation, around 1,000 Kuwaitis were killed by Iraqi forces, around 1,000 disappeared, and an unknown number were tortured. Property destruction included widespread looting, the burning of the Kuwait National Museum (the Dar al-Athar collection), and infrastructure damage.

Coalition combat killed around 3,000 Iraqi civilians directly (most rigorous estimate, Beth Daponte, 1993). The largest single incident was the al-Amiriyah shelter bombing on 13 February 1991, when two F-117A laser-guided bombs hit a Baghdad civil defence shelter believed by US intelligence to be a command bunker. Around 408 civilians (most women and children) were killed.

Bush 41's "the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people [should] take matters into their own hands and force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside" speech on 15 February 1991 was interpreted as an invitation to revolt. After the Coalition ceasefire on 28 February, two uprisings began.

UN comprehensive sanctions from 6 August 1990 to 22 May 2003 (UNSCR 661 to UNSCR 1483) had severe humanitarian consequences.

Direct civilian deaths from the March-April 2003 invasion are estimated at around 7,300 (Iraq Body Count) to 17,000 (Project on Defense Alternatives). The April 2003 looting destroyed much of Iraqi state infrastructure.

Around 2.7 million Iraqis became internally displaced by 2008. Around 2 million became external refugees, mostly to Syria (1.2 million), Jordan (500,000), and Iran. Many remained displaced into the 2010s.

Haditha (19 November 2005). US Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians (15 in homes, 9 in cars) after a roadside IED killed one of their own. Initial cover-up; eventually four Marines court-martialled with charges reduced or dropped. The incident damaged US moral standing.

Joost Hiltermann (A Poisonous Affair, 2007) on Halabja and the international response.

Iraq used Scud-B and modified al-Husayn missiles against Iranian cities from 1985, escalating in the five rounds of the "War of the Cities" (1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988). The final round (29 February to 20 April 1988) saw around 200 missiles strike Tehran with around 2,000 civilian deaths and around 25 per cent of the city's population fleeing.

Iraq used mustard gas, tabun, and sarin against Iranian civilian populations as well as military. Iranian civilian and Kurdish civilian dead from chemical attacks total around 20,000; survivors with lifelong respiratory and dermatological injuries exceed 100,000.

Iraqi forces in occupied Khuzestan (1980-1982) committed widespread atrocities against Arabic-speaking Iranian civilians. Iranian forces inside Iraqi border areas (especially Kurdish areas) committed reciprocal violence.

Iraq held around 50,000 Iranian POWs at war's end (released gradually through 1990-1996); Iran held around 70,000 Iraqi POWs. Many were not repatriated for over a decade.

Started in Basra on 1 March 1991 by an Iraqi tank gunner firing at Saddam's portrait. Spread within days to 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces. The Republican Guard, which had escaped the Coalition trap intact, was deployed under the white-flagged helicopters (Schwarzkopf had agreed to Iraqi helicopter use at the Safwan talks, intending only for transport, not combat).