Foreign relations of Kuwait was dissuaded by the United Kingdom's ready response to the Amir's request for assistance. Kuwait presented its case before the United Nations and successfully preserved its sovereignty. UK forces were later withdrawn and replaced by troops from Arab League nations, which were withdrawn in 1963 at Kuwait's request. On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait. Largely through the efforts of King Fahd bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia who was instrumental in obtaining the help of the U.S., a multinational coalition was assembled, and, under UN auspices, initiated military action against Iraq to liberate Kuwait. Arab states, especially the
Liberation of Kuwait campaign the U.S. Marines stopped at the outskirts of Kuwait City, allowing their Coalition allies to take and occupy Kuwait City, effectively ending combat operations in the Kuwaiti theater of the war. After four days of fighting, all Iraqi troops were expelled from Kuwait, ending a nearly seven-month occupation of Kuwait by Iraq. A little over 1,100 casualties were suffered by the Coalition. Estimates of Iraqi casualties range from 30,000 to 150,000. Iraq lost thousands of vehicles, while the advancing Coalition lost relatively few; Iraq's obsolete Soviet T-72 tanks proved no match for the American M1 Abrams and British Challenger tanks.