Babies stolen from incubators in Kuwait
Executive summary
The widely circulated story that Iraqi soldiers ripped premature babies from incubators in Kuwaiti hospitals and left them to die has been discredited by multiple investigations: the emotional congressional testimony that helped popularize the claim was fabricated and part of a broader PR campaign, while independent reporting found no evidence that Iraqi troops systematically stole incubators and caused mass infant deaths [1] [2] [3]. That said, some premature infants did die in occupied Kuwait amid chaos, medical flight and looting, but the specific narrative of incubators seized and babies left on floors is not supported by the best contemporaneous investigations [1] [4].
1. The origin of the incubator story and the theatrical testimony that drove it
The incubator narrative became global after a tearful 15‑year‑old identified only as “Nayirah” testified to the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus in October 1990 that she had seen Iraqi soldiers remove babies from incubators and leave them to die; that testimony was widely cited in media and political rhetoric [1] [3]. Subsequent reporting revealed that Nayirah was the daughter of Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States and that her testimony was crafted as part of a coordinated information campaign paid for by Citizens for a Free Kuwait and its PR contractors, which coached witnesses and funneled their stories into U.S. public debate [2] [3].
2. Investigations, retractions and the balance of evidence
After the Gulf War, reputable reporters and human‑rights researchers reexamined the incubator claims and found no corroborating evidence that Iraqi troops had systematically removed incubators and left hundreds of infants to die; ABC News reported that while patients — including premature babies — did die when medical staff fled, Iraqi troops “almost certainly had not stolen hospital incubators and left hundreds of Kuwaiti babies to die” [1]. Human Rights Watch and other monitoring bodies concluded the incubator deaths allegation was at best highly exaggerated and that original Kuwaiti government claims could not be substantiated [4] [2].
3. What did happen in occupied Kuwaiti hospitals — chaos, looting and fatalities
Contemporaneous cables and refugee accounts described looting of medical equipment and disruptions that harmed patient care, and Kuwaiti health officials reported neonatal deaths linked to the occupation’s disruption of hospital services; these reports documented serious harm to medical infrastructure even as they did not support the dramatic incubator‑grab story in its popular form [5] [1]. Investigators found varying and inconsistent counts — some Kuwaiti officials initially cited specific death tolls, while later interviews with medical staff contradicted those claims or said equipment had been hidden rather than stolen [4] [6].
4. Why the story mattered: propaganda, policy and public sentiment
The incubator episode became a case study in how emotive eyewitness testimony, PR campaigns and sympathetic media coverage can shape public opinion and policy; journalists and historians have documented how the narrative helped mobilize U.S. support for forceful response to Iraq’s invasion [3] [2]. Critics point to the episode as evidence of opportunistic manipulation of human‑rights rhetoric, and even Amnesty International issued corrections after initial reports were shown to be flawed [1] [6].
5. Open questions and limits of the record
Primary investigations undermined the specific claim that Iraqi soldiers stole incubators and left babies to die en masse, but the record does show hospital looting, medical evacuation and neonatal deaths during the occupation; available sources do not allow a definitive accounting of every infant death in 1990 Kuwait, and some contemporaneous testimonies changed over time, complicating reconstruction [4] [1] [6]. Reporting that labels the incubator story a “hoax” is supported by multiple postwar inquiries and by disclosure of PR involvement, yet it exists alongside documented Iraqi abuses and the harsh reality that patients suffered amid the invasion [2] [7].