Word: iraqis
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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American officials scurried to make sure Saddam did not misjudge the Western opposition to the Iraqi move. White House press secretary Mike McCurry said any Iraqi aggression would be "a matter of grave concern." Secretary of State Warren Christopher cut short a California vacation and rushed back to Washington. Meanwhile, from London and Paris came more warnings to Baghdad...
Some 40,000 of Saddam Hussein's best-trained and most loyal soldiers took up positions late last week 12 miles south of the city of Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan and the center of a conflict between rival Kurd factions. And then, despite warnings from Washington, Saddam's forces rolled north toward Erbil. After heavy artillery pounded the city, the Iraqis quickly took control on Saturday. The Iraqi offensive was Saddam's boldest move since the end of the Gulf War five years ago, and set the stage for a new test of wills between Washington and Baghdad...
...Persian Gulf War. That was when the U.S. and its allies established an enclave where the 4 million Kurds would be protected from Saddam. The Kurds rebelled against Baghdad at the end of the war, hoping the moment was ripe for them to set up an independent country. Iraqi forces were on their way to crushing the rebellion when the Western powers drew a line just south of Erbil and told Saddam not to cross...
...inherently unstable situation like that was ideal for Iranian and Iraqi mischief making. Iran, which is said to support the P.U.K. clandestinely, has been sending small units into the area for months under the pretext that they were subduing Iranian Kurds. On Aug. 17, the P.U.K., with military hardware allegedly supplied by Iran, began a serious assault on the K.D.P. Iranian forces joined the action by shelling K.D.P. positions from Iranian bases...
Clinton's national security advisers first learned of the Iraqi buildup from spy-satellite photos. Washington immediately sent a blunt message to Iraqi officials at the U.N., saying it would be a "serious mistake" to move against the Kurds, but Saddam Hussein did not heed the warning. On Friday night Tariq Aziz, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, announced that a "limited military operation" had been undertaken in response to an appeal from the K.D.P. State Department officials confirmed that in some parts of the city, K.D.P. soldiers fought alongside Iraqi forces, and K.D.P. radio broadcasts also told people to turn...