ECOTERROR - Kuwait '91

Throughout the First Gulf War the Iraqi army made use of Kuwaiti oil wells as an area denial weapon, using both the smoke to disrupt Coalition air power and the oil itself to fill ditches in an attempt to funnel units into traps. When they withdrew, in a punitive act, they set fire to somewhere between 605 and 732 oil wells, creating one of the worst environmental disasters in history. Firefighting teams were brought into from a number of countries around the world who dubbed the clean-up "Operation Desert Hell". It was predicted it would take 4 years, they extinguished the fires in 9 months.