Iraq pays final Kuwait war reparations

Iraq has paid its last war reparations to Kuwait more than 30 years since the invasion of the Gulf country by former autocrat Saddam Hussein, officials said yesterday. On August 2, 1990, Hussein ordered his army to invade Kuwait and seize what he described as "Iraq's 19th province", before being pushed back seven months later by a US-led coalition. "Iraq has closed the file of the Kuwait war reparations, having paid the last of its dues," Mozher Saleh, the prime minister's economic advisor, was quoted as saying by the official Iraqi News Agency. In total, Iraq has paid $52.4 billion in reparations, he said. "This is not a small amount," he added. "The sum would have been enough to construct an electricity network that would have served Iraq for many years."