LYCOS RETRIEVER
Kuwait: United States
built 645 days ago
The total area of the State of Kuwait is 17,818 square kilometers (6,969 square miles). Most of Kuwait mainland is a flat sandy desert, gradually sloping down from the extreme west of Shigaya and Salmi (300 meters high) towards sea level in the east. It is broken by shallow depressions and low hills, such as Al-Liyah, Kura Al-Maru, Shagat Al-Jleeb, and Afrie, which form a ridge at Jal al-Zor (145 meters high), cut by the Umm Al-Ramam wadi. The area is locally known by the name ? Ghodai? meaning the ?
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Kuwait had been a generous contributor to the Palestinian cause and to the more radical Arab states. But with first the Iranian revolution and then the outbreak of war between Iraq and Iran, Kuwait became a target.
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As of the end of 2005, Kuwait had a total population of 2.992 million people which included approximately 2 million non-nationals. Kuwaiti citizens are therefore a minority of those who reside in Kuwait. The government only rarely grants citizenship to non-citizens (who are generally referred to as expatriates). About 57% of the Kuwaiti population is Arab; Arab expatriates include a large group of stateless Arabs, locally known as Bidoon (an Arabic word meaning "without" and distinct from "Bedouin"), along with Egyptians, Lebanese and other Arabs.
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MODERN HISTORY - WWII TO 1993: In 1961 Kuwait gained full independence from Britain while Iraq pressed its territorial claim over Kuwait. In 1962 under Emir Abdullah al-Salim al-Sabah the constitution was inaugurated. In 1967 Kuwait sent troops to Egypt during the Middle East crisis... they did not take part in the Arab-Israeli Six Day War. In 1973 a small number of Kuwaiti troops took part in the next Arab-Israeli war and in Oct. 1973 Kuwait and other Arab oil exporting nations stopped shipments of oil to the United States and some other Western nations. In May 1973 Iraq invaded Kuwait and occupied the border post of Samitah, a conflict ensued and Iraq later withdrew in 1974. In 1979 fundamentalist Islamic revolutionaries gained control of Iran, northeast of Kuwait and in 1981 during the Iran-Iraq War, Iran bombed two Kuwaiti border areas.
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Before Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, Kuwaiti citizens made up about 28 percent of the population of 2.1 million. Palestinians, peaking at about 400,000 persons, constituted the largest immigrant community, many having come to Kuwait after the 1948 and 1967 Arab - Israel wars. Kuwait ... hosted an estimated quarter-million stateless Arabs, the bidun ("without" - for without citizenship). Bidun worked primarily as police and military personnel and were treated almost as citizens. When oil prices collapsed in 1986, the government tried to curb guest-worker immigration and encouraged bidun to emigrate. Following liberation in February 1991, most Palestinians were deported in retaliation for Yasir Arafat's support of Saddam Hussein's invasion, while bidun continued to suffer discrimination.
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In 1990, Kuwait was invaded and annexed by neighboring Iraq. The seven month-long Iraqi occupation came to an end after a direct military intervention by United States-led forces. Nearly 700 Kuwaiti oil wells were set ablaze by the retreating Iraqi army resulting in a major environmental and economic catastrophe.[8] Kuwait's infrastructure was badly damaged during the war and had to be rebuilt.[9]
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