The body of an Iraqi soldier, killed by Saudi and Qatari Emirati forces in the Battle of Khafji in the Gulf War, lies face down in the street in downtown Khafji on February 1, 1991.

　　The body of an Iraqi soldier killed in the Gulf War lies face down on the street in downtown Khafji on February 1, 1991. The Battle of Khafji was the first ground battle of the Gulf War, in which approximately 300 Iraqi soldiers were killed.

　 Beginning on January 29, 1991, fierce fighting over the Saudi coastal suburb of Khafji, Saudi and Emirate of Qatar forces, backed by U.S. artillery and air strikes, routed Iraqi troops and tanks, freeing 12 members of two U.S. Marine recon teams from Khafji around noon on February 1 The Gulf War began on Jan. 17.

　Since the start of the Gulf War on January 17, Khafji, a town of 45,000 people on the Persian Gulf, has been abandoned and its buildings defended by a token garrison of Saudi Arabian Marines. A 12-member Marine reconnaissance team has been trapped in Khafji since the night of January 29, when it was overrun by some 400 to 600 Iraqi troops and 40 to 45 tanks in a major Iraqi Gulf War ground offensive. Iraqi soldiers held machine guns in armored personnel carriers, and Iraqi troops advanced very quickly.

　The U.S. military was silent on the deaths in the fighting in Khafjih. Saudi sources said 12 Saudis and 28 Iraqis were killed; the Associated Press reported that the top Saudi military commander said the Iraqi death toll rose to 200. The number of Iraqi prisoners of war ranged from 161 to just over 400.

　U.S. Marines twice repelled Iraqi forces that crossed the Kuwaiti border about 80 kilometers west of Khafji before the Iraqi forces withdrew from Khafji. Eleven Marines were killed and two more wounded in the western incursions. Iraqi forces are camped behind minefields, barbed wire, and fortifications in occupied Kuwait. Meanwhile, Marines approached the northern Saudi border and occupied forward positions in anticipation of a future ground offensive.