Catastrophe
Saddam Hussein knew the war was over. He couldn't have Kuwait, so he didn't want anyone else to benefit from it. As the 1991 Persian Gulf War ended, he sent men to blow up Kuwaiti oil wells. Approximately 600 were set on fire, and the fires burned for seven months. The Gulf was a poisonous smoke cloud,soot and ash. Black rain fell. Lakes of oil were created. According NASA , "The sand and gravel on the land's surface combined with oil and soot to form a layer of hardened 'tarcrete' over almost 5 percent of the country's area." Scores of livestock and other animals died from the oily mist, their lungs blackened by the liquid