Military

8th Infantry Division

By the commencement of the Desert Storm ground campaign, the 8th Infantry Division was deployed in southeastern Kuwait, on the border with Saudi Arabia. Operation Desert Storm 1991 by Terry Coello & Ravi Rikhye assigns this division to the IV Corps, which covered the western Kuwait-Saudi border-Iraq border area, but this is almost certainly in error, and is not attested by other sources.

As the ground offensive progressed, by 25 February 1991 Iraqi units' ineffectiveness became more clear. The Iraqi III Corps units had suffered severe damage. CENTCOM assessed the Corps' 7th, 8th, 14th, 18th, and 29th Infantry divisions, in the I MEF and JFC-E zones, as combat ineffective. On the eastern side of III Corps, the 18th and 8th Infantry divisions, in front of Joint Forces Command East [JFC-E], were assessed as combat ineffective, although they offered stiff resistance against JFC-E forces near Mina As-Sa'ud.

In November 1996 Iraqi Army and Republican Guard units manoeuvred towards Arbil and the contact lines in the Iraqi Kurdistan areas, which were still out of the regime's control. The movements included the 44th Brigade of the 8th Division towards Isma'il Bik hill, which overlooks the basin opposite the Haybat Sultan area. Personnel from the Military Intelligence and Military Security units of the 1st Army Corps were deployed in the Dighalah area. Unconfirmed reports said that forces from the 17th Mechanized Brigade of the 10th Armored Division, the Nasr Forces Command of the 4th Army Corps, were deployed in the same sector.

By mid-February 1997 the 8th Division, "Al-Muthanna Forces Command" of the 1st Corps, had pulled out of its positions in the areas of Laylan and Taza Khurmatu on the outskirts of Kirkuk. It moved south and to camp at Nassiriya.