The Associated Press has found that Saudi Arabia secretly played a major role in the US invasion of Iraq. The US managed the air campaign against Iraq from Saudi Arabia where the US used at least three air bases. Thousands of U.S. special forces staged attacks from Saudi Arabia. And the Saudis provided tens of millions of dollars in cheap fuel to the US forces. Saudi Arabia’s role in the war had been kept secret in part because the war was widely opposed by the general Saudi population. The U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War has been cited by Osama Bin Laden as a key reason why he began to wage jihad against the U.S.