Special forces went in first, followed by Kuwaiti troops and then US marines.

At 2100 US time, President George Bush Snr announced a ceasefire from 0400 the following day.

Allied forces across Iraq had by this time captured tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers.

Many were hungry, exhausted and demoralised and surrendered with little resistance. The US estimated that 150,000 Iraqi soldiers had deserted.

The allies had lost 148 soldiers in battle, and another 145 in deaths described as "non-battle".

Estimates of Iraqi deaths range from 60,000 to 200,000 soldiers. Heaps of Iraqi corpses were buried in mass graves in the desert.

On 2 March the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution establishing the terms of the ceasefire.

These required Iraq to end all military action, to rescind its annexation of Kuwait, to disclose information about any stored chemical and biological weapons, to release all international prisoners and accept responsibility for the casualties and damage done during its occupation of Kuwait.

The next day, Iraqi commanders accepted the ceasefire terms formally at a meeting with US military leaders in a tent at the captured Iraqi military base of Safwan.

Saddam Hussein did not attend.