Saddam Line

The Saddam Line consisted of defensive fortifications constructed by Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Army on Kuwait's border with Saudi Arabia after Iraq had invaded and occupied Kuwait in August 1990.

The Western media presented fears that it would present a formidable obstacle to the liberation of Kuwait, consisting of "flame trenches" (ditches filled with oil to be ignited in case of attack) and "sand berms, trench works, tank ditches, barbed wire and minefields", backed by the threat of chemical and biological weapons. However, those fears turned out to be unwarranted. The coalition assault, beginning at 4 a.m. on February 24, 1991, met "only sporadic resistance", and by 6:45 a.m., troops had broken through the Saddam Line, showing it to be a "fraud promoted equally by the Iraqis and the U.S. military and their compliant media."