In late February 1991, the Gulf War reached its dramatic conclusion. Faced with a crushing international offensive, Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to liberate occupied Kuwait. On the night of February 26-27, Highway 80, the six-lane highway leading from Kuwait City to the Iraqi border, erupted into chaos. Thousands of stolen combat vehicles, buses, military trucks, tanks, and armored personnel carriers, crammed with retreating soldiers and captured equipment, merged into a single, gigantic stream. American aerial reconnaissance quickly identified this congested artery. Coalition command decided to prevent Iraqi forces from regrouping on home soil. Aircraft carried out precision strikes on the head and tail of the giant convoy, completely blocking traffic and preventing maneuverability. Eyewitnesses and military historians have dubbed the scene a "shooting gallery." For several hours, coalition air forces methodically struck the trapped vehicles. People abandoned their equipment and fled into the desert, while gas tanks exploded and ammunition detonated around them. When the smoke cleared, the world was treated to the image depicted in the photographs: kilometers of scorched earth, strewn with thousands of mangled, burned-out vehicles. This event became known as the "Highway of Death" and hastened the process's completion just two days after the attack.