The coalition aimed first to destroy Iraq's ability to launch attacks. Allied aircraft first bombed Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, and then attacked targets throughout Iraq and Kuwait. These weapons included cruise missiles launched from U.S. ships in the gulf. The Scuds were crude and inaccurate by Western standards. But they terrorized the populations of targeted cities and killed a number of people in both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Analysts believe that Iraq used the attacks on Israel to try to draw it into the war.
Had Israel struck back, Iraq might have succeeded in forcing Arab countries out of the coalition by portraying the war as an Arab-Israeli conflict. However, Israel did not enter the war, thus making it much easier to keep the coalition together. The ground war. The first major ground battle occurred at Khafji, a small Saudi Arabian coastal town near Kuwait. The Saudis had deserted the town before the war.