Camp Doha was the main U.S. Army base in Kuwait, and played a pivotal role in the U.S. military presence in the Middle East since the 1991 Gulf War and in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Camp Doha housed both Army Forces Central Command-Kuwait (ARCENT-Kuwait) and Coalition/Joint Task Force-Kuwait (Forward) (C/JTF-KU (Fwd)), making it effectively a nerve center not only for U.S. operations in Iraq, but throughout the Middle East.
This set off an hours-long series of explosions and fires that devastated the vehicles and equipment in the North Compound and scattered unexploded ordnance and debris over much of the remainder of the camp.
The fires produced billowing black and white clouds of smoke that rose hundreds of feet into the air and drifted to the east-southeast, across portions of both the North and South Compounds, in the direction of Kuwait City.
Most of the injuries were fractures, sprains, contusions, or lacerations suffered when soldiers scrambled over the 15-foot high perimeter wall to escape the North Compound.