In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

The Road of Death — the last “safe” corridor guaranteed by America…The Highway of Death Massacre*

In late February 1991, seven months after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, signs of the war’s end began to appear. The Iraqi army had been exhausted by continuous coalition air strikes. On 22 February 1991, the Soviet Union — still extant at the time — proposed a peace initiative calling for Iraq’s complete withdrawal from Kuwait within 21 days, during which coalition forces would pause their attacks.

After Soviet mediation, Iraq sent a statement to the United Nations and Washington agreeing to withdraw completely from Kuwait within one day, under direct UN supervision and with U.S. approval.

Washington officially replied through President George H. W. Bush: “We will halt military operations if Iraq begins an actual withdrawal from Kuwait, in accordance with Security Council resolutions.”

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ordered the withdrawal from Kuwait and announced via the Iraqi News Agency his adherence to the Security Council resolutions — notably Resolutions 660 and 678, which call for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

The United Nations welcomed the initiative, and the White House declared its approval.

The Iraqi army then withdrew from Kuwait; convoys moved in long columns along Highway 80 from Kuwait toward the Iraqi border, unprepared for combat and reassured by U.S. and UN guarantees.

By nightfall, U.S. and British satellites and aircraft had observed the massive convoy stretching for tens of kilometers, a metallic serpent across the desert.

At that moment, President Bush reportedly ordered U.S. forces: “Don’t let an Iraqi return home… kill them all.”

Within minutes the sky became a storm of fire. Missiles and smart bombs from U.S. and British aircraft rained down on the withdrawing Iraqi column without pause. Tanks and vehicles were set ablaze, fuel tanks exploded, and flames rose until the horizon looked like the dawn of hell. Pilots returned to strike the same targets repeatedly while bodies were burned inside the vehicles.

* More than 1,400 vehicles were bombed.
* An estimated ~10,000 Iraqi soldiers — and some civilians, including women and children who had withdrawn with the army fearing reprisal — were burned to death.

All this occurred despite the announced ceasefire guarantees by the United Nations and the United States and Iraq’s formal declaration of withdrawal.

Journalists who reached the scene described it in stunned terms: “We had never seen anything like this before. The road looked like the end of the world.”

Since that day, American soldiers and the Western media dubbed it the “Highway of Death.”

Thus, the attack on a withdrawing force was a betrayal of an international agreement and constitutes a clear war crime under the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit attacking withdrawing soldiers, prisoners, or those who have laid down arms.

As usual, no international inquiry was opened, because the perpetrator was the judge itself — the United States, the great power that is not held to account and which can breach international law at will — a law that, in practice, wields its sword primarily over the weak.

So fate awaits anyone who trusts Western promises and believes in their international law…

History’s tales are not told to lull children to sleep; they are told to make men rise and prepare.