Direct proof of use
Iraq entered the 1990 Gulf War with Su-20 and Su-22 Fitter-family attack aircraft in its air force. Air Force Historical Research Agency analysis of Operation Desert Storm lists four Iraqi SU-22s among the aircraft shot down by USAF pilots between January and March 1991, placing the type in Iraqi fixed-wing combat aviation during the campaign.
The clearest source-backed Gulf War record for the Fitter family is attritional and evasive rather than a documented successful attack mission. AirVectors summarizes Iraqi Su-20/22 service as a poor showing in 1991, with four shot down, fourteen destroyed on the ground, and surviving aircraft fleeing to Iran; CSIS's Gulf War air-superiority study separately lists forty Su-22s and four Su-20s among Iraqi aircraft seized by Iran after the war.
Sources: Air Force History What Happened to the Iraqi Air Force, Sukhoi Su-17 / 20 / 22, CSIS Struggle for Air Supremacy
Campaign chronology
The Gulf War began with Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait on 2 August 1990 and moved into the Desert Storm combat phase on 17 January 1991. The coalition air campaign quickly targeted Iraqi airfields and aircraft; the Air Force Historical Research Agency study says USAF and coalition air action eliminated much of Iraq's fixed-wing combat force, with 32 fixed-wing aircraft shot down and 254 destroyed on the ground.
As coalition pressure mounted, Iraqi aircraft began flying to Iran. CSIS describes flights beginning on 26 January 1991 and says about eighty aircraft had crossed the border by 29 January. Its table of aircraft seized by Iran after the war includes forty Su-22 Fitters and four Su-20 Fitters, showing that a large share of Iraq's Fitter force was removed from the campaign through evacuation and internment.
Sources: State Department Gulf War, Air Force History What Happened to the Iraqi Air Force, CSIS Struggle for Air Supremacy
Operational role
The Su-17 catalog entry covers the Soviet Fitter family, including the export Su-20 and Su-22 variants that Iraq operated. In Iraqi service these aircraft were attack and fighter-bomber platforms, a role reinforced by their heavy Iran-Iraq War employment before 1990. During Desert Storm, however, public source support for the exact Su-20/22 role is strongest for fielding, aircraft losses, and flight to Iran, not for confirmed battlefield interdiction effects.
For this record, the conflict role is therefore best read as Iraqi attack aircraft fielded inside the air campaign and neutralized by coalition counter-air operations. The aircraft were part of the Iraqi force structure the coalition sought to suppress, destroy on airfields, intercept in flight, or prevent from escaping; available sources do not support a detailed claim about specific Su-20/22 targets struck in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, or Iraq during the 1991 campaign.
Sources: Sukhoi Su-17 / 20 / 22, Air Force History What Happened to the Iraqi Air Force, CSIS Struggle for Air Supremacy
