who started the first persian gulf war?
Kuwait
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 The war developed at a time when the attention of the United States and the world was on Iraq , and the Gulf War in 1991 , along with a sharp rise in oil prices and a slowdown in the growth of the world economy . 

contradiction
 The origins of the civil war lie in the succession arrangements of Harun al @-@ Rashid ( reigned 786 – 809 ) , as well as the internal political dynamics of the Abbasid Caliphate . The two main contenders , Muhammad al @-@ Amin and Abdallah al @-@ Ma 'mun , were born six months apart in AH 170 ( 786 – 787 ) , with al @-@ Ma 'mun being the elder . It was al @-@ Amin however who was named first heir in 791 or 792 , while al @-@ Ma 'mun followed in 797 , a sequence which was influenced by their lines of descent and their political implications : al @-@ Amin had a solidly Abbasid lineage , being Harun 's son by Zubayda , herself descended from the second Abbasid Caliph al @-@ Mansur ( r . 754 – 775 ) , while al @-@ Ma 'mun 's mother was Marajil , a Persian concubine from Badhgis in Khurasan . 

neutral
 = = First conflicts : the First Arab – Khazar War and aftermath = = 

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 The Battle of Khafji was the first major ground engagement of the Gulf War . It took place in and around the Saudi Arabian city of Khafji , from 29 January to 1 February 1991 and marked the culmination of the Coalition 's air campaign over Kuwait and Iraq , which had begun on 17 January 1991 . 

entailment
 In response , the United Nations began to pass a series of resolutions demanding the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait . Afraid that Saudi Arabia would be invaded next , the Saudi government requested immediate military aid . As a result , the United States began marshalling forces from a variety of nations , styled the Coalition , on the Arabian peninsula . Initially , Saddam Hussein attempted to deter Coalition military action by threatening Kuwait 's and Iraq 's petroleum production and export . In December 1990 , Iraq experimented with the use of explosives to destroy wellheads in the area of the Ahmadi loading complex , developing their capability to destroy Kuwait 's petroleum infrastructure on a large scale . On 16 January , Iraqi artillery destroyed an oil storage tank in Khafji , Saudi Arabia , and on 19 January the pumps at the Ahmadi loading complex were opened , pouring crude oil into the Persian Gulf . The oil flowed into the sea at a rate of 200 @,@ 000 barrels a day , becoming one of the worst ecological disasters to that date . 
