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You're listening to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Samaya Bach and today I'm taking you back to the 2nd of August 1990

when the Iraqi dictator Sodom-Hissain sent more than 100,000 troops into the tiny oil-rich Gulf

state of Kuwait.

Kuwaiti radio immediately started broadcasting appeals for help from the outside world.

Samuel Alawi, a 20-year-old Kuwaiti government employee, was woken by his father at about 8 in the morning.

My father, God rest his soul, he said something to me that surprised me.

Come on Sammy, get up and die. Get up and die.

I said to him, Dad, what do you mean go and die?

He said, Saddam's entered Kuwait.

Get up and go and volunteer.

He meant go to the Army headquarters and see what you can do.

Sammy immediately got into his car but he soon

found out that Iraqi forces had already reached his part of Kuwait City.

There was a soldier in full combat gear in the middle of the street.

I thought he was a Kuwaiti soldier.

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