Baghdad International Airport, previously Saddam International Airport from 1982 to 2003, is Iraq's largest international airport, located in a suburb about 16 km (9.9 mi) west of downtown Baghdad in the Baghdad Governorate. It is the home base for Iraq's national airline, Iraqi Airways.
Iraqi Airways Company, operating as Iraqi Airways, is the national carrier of Iraq, headquartered on the grounds of Baghdad International Airport in Baghdad. It is the second oldest airline in the Middle East. Iraqi Airways operates domestic and regional services; its main base is Baghdad International Airport.
The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States. The coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.
Akshay Hari Om Bhatia, known professionally as Akshay Kumar, is an Indian actor and film producer working in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as "Khiladi Kumar", through his career spanning over 30 years, Kumar has appeared in over 150 films and has won several awards, including two National Film Awards and two Filmfare Awards. He received the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, from the Government of India in 2009. Kumar is one of the most prolific actors in Indian cinema. Forbes included Kumar in their lists of both highest-paid celebrities and highest-paid actors in the world from 2015 to 2020. Between 2019 and 2020, he was the only Indian on both lists.
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait began on 2 August 1990 and marked the beginning of the Gulf War. After defeating the State of Kuwait on 4 August 1990, Iraq went on to militarily occupy the country for the next seven months. The invasion was condemned internationally, and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted numerous resolutions urging Iraq to withdraw from Kuwaiti territory. The Iraqi military, however, continued to occupy Kuwait and defied all orders by the UNSC. After initially establishing the "Republic of Kuwait" as a puppet state, Iraq annexed the entire country on 28 August 1990; northern Kuwait became the Saddamiyat al-Mitla' District and was merged into the existing Basra Governorate, while southern Kuwait was carved out as the all-new Kuwait Governorate. By November 1990, the adoption of UNSC Resolution 678 officially issued Iraq an ultimatum to withdraw unconditionally by 15 January 1991 or else be removed by "all necessary means" from Kuwaiti territory. In anticipation of a war with Iraq, the UNSC authorized the assembly of an American-led military coalition.
Members of the Iraqi insurgency began taking foreign hostages in Iraq beginning in April 2004. Since then, in a dramatic instance of Islamist kidnapping they have taken captive more than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis; among them, dozens of hostages were killed and others rescued or freed. In 2004, executions of captives were often filmed, and many were beheaded. However, the number of the recorded killings decreased significantly. Many hostages remain missing with no clue as to their whereabouts. The United States Department of State Hostage Working Group was organized by the U.S. Embassy, Baghdad, in the summer of 2004 to monitor foreign hostages in Iraq.
An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft.
Operation Desert Storm, the combat phase of the Gulf War, began with an extensive aerial bombing campaign by the air forces of the coalition against targets in Iraq and Iraqi-occupied Kuwait from 17 January 1991 to 23 February 1991. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition flew over 100,000 sorties, dropping 88,500 tons of bombs, widely destroying military and civilian infrastructure. The air campaign was commanded by United States Air Force (USAF) Lieutenant General Chuck Horner, who briefly served as Commander-in-Chief—Forward of U.S. Central Command while General Norman Schwarzkopf was still in the United States. The British air commanders were Air Chief Marshal Andrew Wilson and Air Vice-Marshal Bill Wratten. The air campaign had largely finished by 23 February 1991 with the beginning of the coalition ground offensive into Kuwait.
Air India is the flag carrier airline of India. It is owned by Air India Limited, a Tata Group enterprise and operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft serving 102 domestic and international destinations. It is headquartered in Gurugram. The airline has its main hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, and secondary hubs at Kempegowda International Airport in Bangalore and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, alongside several focus cities across India. As of July 2023, the airline is the second-largest airline in India in terms of passengers carried, after IndiGo. Air India became the 27th member of Star Alliance on 11 July 2014.
Operation Safe Homecoming was an operation launched by the Indian government on 26 February 2011 to evacuate its citizens who were fleeing from the Libyan Civil War. The air-sea operation was conducted by the Indian Navy and Air India. The last such operation was during the 2006 Lebanon War, when the Indian Navy and Air India were used in Operation Sukoon; before that, India evacuated 111,711 nationals after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Nimrat Kaur is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films and in American television. She began her career as a print model and went on to act in theater. After brief appearances in a few films, Kaur starred in Anurag Kashyap's production Peddlers (2012). She followed it with her breakthrough role in the critically acclaimed drama The Lunchbox (2014).
Ambassador Kalarickal Pranchu Fabian is an Indian Diplomat who served in the Indian Foreign Service between 1964 and 2000, during which time he was posted to Madagascar, Austria, Iran, Sri Lanka, Canada, Finland, Qatar and Italy.
Airlift is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language thriller drama film directed by Raja Krishna Menon starring Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur, that follows Ranjit Katyal, a Kuwait-based businessman as he carries out the evacuation of Indians based in Kuwait during the Invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's Iraq which led to the beginning of the Gulf War. The film was jointly produced by Abundantia Entertainment, Cape of Good Films, Emmay Entertainment, Hari Om Entertainment, T-Series and Viacom 18 Motion Pictures on a total budget of ₹320 million. The plot is adapted from the real life story of a Kuwait-based Indian businessman Mathunny Mathews.
Mathunny Mathews (1936-2017), also known as Toyota Sunny, was a Kuwait-based Indian businessman who was one of the people credited with the safe airlift evacuation of about 170,000 Indians from Kuwait during the 1990 Invasion of Kuwait, which is hailed as the world's largest air civilian evacuation in history.
Harbhajan Singh Vedi was a Kuwait-based Indian billionaire and was one of the main persons credited with the safe airlift evacuation of 170,000 Indians from Kuwait during the 1990 Invasion of Kuwait, which is hailed as the largest civilian evacuation in history.
Raja Krishna Menon is an Indian film writer, director and producer. He started as an advertisement director and later moved to feature films. He has directed five Hindi films.
The timeline of the Gulf War details the dates of the major events of the 1990–1991 war. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 and ended with the Liberation of Kuwait by Coalition forces. Iraq subsequently agreed to the United Nations' demands on 28 February 1991. The ground war officially concluded with the signing of the armistice on 11 April 1991. However, the official end to Operation Desert Storm did not occur until sometime between 1996 - 1998. Major events in the aftermath include anti-Saddam Hussein uprisings in Iraq, massacres against the Kurds by the regime, Iraq formally recognizing the sovereignty of Kuwait in 1994, and eventually ending its cooperation with the United Nations Special Commission in 1998.
"Soch Na Sake" is a song from the 2016 Hindi film Airlift, an adapted version of Hardy Sandhu's "Soch", sung by Arijit Singh and Tulsi Kumar. The lyrics for the song is written by Kumaar and the music is composed by Amaal Mallik. The song is a melodious mixture of Hindi and Punjabi lyrics. There is also a solo version of the song, sung by Arijit Singh.
Operation Devi Shakti was an operation of the Indian Armed Forces to evacuate Indian citizens and foreign nationals from Afghanistan after the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul, the capital city, to the Taliban.
