Direct proof of use
The BMP-1 appears in the 1990 Gulf War through Iraqi Army service during Operation Desert Storm. U.S. Army display history for a Rock Island Arsenal BMP-1 states that the vehicle served with the Iraqi Army during the Gulf War and was found abandoned west of Kuwait City.
Imperial War Museums gives a second institutional account from the ground campaign, describing a BMP-1 captured from Iraqi forces in 1991 and noting that Iraq had about a thousand of the infantry fighting vehicles. Public-domain image records add battlefield evidence: a Marine Corps image shows Marines handling an Iraqi BMP-1 captured during Operation Desert Storm on 17 March 1991, while NARA/DVIDS archive captions record abandoned and destroyed Iraqi BMP-1s in Kuwait during the ground phase.
Sources: U.S. Army BMP-1 Tour, IWM Gulf War Ground Campaign, Captured Iraqi BMP-1 Wikimedia, NARA Abandoned Iraqi BMP-1, NARA Destroyed Iraqi BMP-1
Timeline
On 24 February 1991, the coalition ground offensive began. IWM places the start of the ground attack at 5:00 a.m. and describes U.S. Marines breaching Iraqi defenses farther south while VII Corps advanced toward al-Busayyah.
NARA/DVIDS image metadata dated 24 February 1991 records an abandoned Iraqi BMP-1 in a revetment outside Kuwait City and a destroyed Iraqi BMP-1 along the road into Kuwait City during the ground phase of Operation Desert Storm. On 17 March 1991, a Marine Corps photograph later hosted on Wikimedia Commons showed two Marines lowering the trim vane on a captured Iraqi BMP-1.
Sources: IWM Gulf War Ground Campaign, NARA Abandoned Iraqi BMP-1, NARA Destroyed Iraqi BMP-1, Captured Iraqi BMP-1 Wikimedia
Narrative
In this conflict, the BMP-1 was an Iraqi mechanized infantry vehicle rather than a coalition system. The U.S. Army account identifies an Iraqi Army vehicle abandoned west of Kuwait City, while IWM describes a British-captured BMP-1 and places it among Iraqi vehicles that survived ground fighting and were taken by coalition forces.
The surviving evidence supports fielding, abandonment, capture, and destruction of Iraqi BMP-1s during the ground campaign. It does not, by itself, identify named Iraqi units or individual BMP-1 engagements, so the documented role is best treated as Iraqi armored troop transport, direct-fire support, and recovered battlefield materiel.
Sources: U.S. Army BMP-1 Tour, IWM Gulf War Ground Campaign, NARA Abandoned Iraqi BMP-1, NARA Destroyed Iraqi BMP-1
