A New Zealand airman guards a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) C-130 Hercules on a Saudi Arabian airfield in 1991. A US-led United Nations force was assembled to liberate Kuwait, which Iraq had invaded in August 1990. The New Zealand government committed two Hercules transport aircraft and two military medical teams to the coalition forces. The RNZAF planes, from 40 Squadron, operated with a British Royal Air Force unit based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. By the end of February 1991 the Iraqis had been driven from Kuwait. Coalition casualties were light, and the New Zealand medical units did not have to deal with any battle casualties. None of the New Zealand personnel were killed or wounded. The RNZAF Hercules and the medical teams were withdrawn from the Persian Gulf by the end of April 1991.