INTRODUCTION

          The initial U.S. military presence in the region consisted of the seven ships of the Joint Task Force Middle East that are permanently stationed in the Persian Gulf. On August 7, 1990, five days after the invasion, the Independence carrier battle group arrived in the Gulf of Oman and the Eisenhower carrier battle group passed through the Suez Canal en route to the Red Sea.

          On August 15, ships from Maritime Prepositioned Squadron Two, based at Diego Garcia, arrived in Saudi Arabia and began to unload their cargo of military equipment and sustaining supplies for the Seventh Marine Expeditionary Brigade ( MEB ). Shortly thereafter military equipment and sustaining supplies for the First MEB began to arrive.

          In September 1990, naval forces had increased to 52 ships, including two carrier battle groups. In addition, one battleship and the Kennedy carrier battle group were operating in the Eastern Mediterranean. In October, forces increased to 58 ships, including three carrier battle groups and four mine countermeasures ships.

          In November 1990, planning and operations shifted to an offensive posture and additional ship deployments were ordered. By the time the air campaign started on January 17, the United States had 127 ships deployed in the region, including six U.S. carrier battle groups. At the time, allied navies had an additional 72 ships in the region.

The Naval Quarantine

          On August 16, U.S. Navy ships began maritime interdiction operations, the enforcement mechanism for the naval quarantine of Iraq. The first ship diversion, a Chinese vessel en route from Iraq to Qing Dao, China, occurred on August 18. As part of the coalition effort to conduct interdiction operations, 13 countries deployed naval forces to the Gulf and six additional countries provided some form of assistance.

          The naval quarantine was carried out, during the war, consistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 661 and subsequent resolutions that sought, before the war, to bring economic pressure on Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait and later to cut off the flow of war materiel.

          Interdiction forces generally operated in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Interdiction also involved deploying U.S. Navy units operating in the Mediterranean to identify any attempts by Algeria and Libya to provide support for Iraq or to interfere with allied operations.

          Iraq is particularly susceptible to quarantine. It is a largely landlocked country with only limited access to the Persian Gulf. Before the war, approximately 60 percent of Iraqi imports arrived by sea, with the remainder arriving overland through Turkey. About 90 percent of the ocean transported imports arrived through the Jordanian port of Aqaba on the Red Sea, and the remainder through Kuwaiti or Iraqi ports on the Persian Gulf.

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