In the battle, Coalition forces captured an Iraqi offshore oil field forty miles from the Kuwaiti shore.

In the early morning of 18 January, Coalition aircraft began a major campaign against Iraqi forces in preparation for the ground invasion of Kuwait and Iraq.

Many of these jets and air sorties were coming from aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships located in the Persian Gulf.

The US suspected that there was a large garrison of Iraqi troops located there being used as an outpost for reporting Coalition aircraft movements back to Iraq.

[1] Later that night, OH-58D and U.S. Navy Sikorsky SH-60B Seahawk helicopters attacked two platforms out of range of the Coalition surface ships, with air-surface missiles.