ANThOLOGY AND ANNOrATED BIBLIOGRAPHY                                        191

The Kurds are a distinct ethnic minonty living in the mountains of Northern
Iraq, Northwestern Iran and Southern Turkey.   For years, the Iraqi government
has subjected these people to a deliberate policy of oppression and genocide.
Colonel Jones  commanded   the 24th Marine       Expeditionary Unit (Special
Operations Capable), the principal Marine component of the allied effort to
provide humanitarian relief to the Kurds in the wake of Desert Storm.

Operation PROVIDE COMFORT:
Humanitarian and Security Assistance in Northern Iraq
by Colonel James L. Jones

Marine Corps Gazette, November 1991


   Hoping to take advantage of the allies victory over Iraq in DESERT
STORM, dissident factions within Iraq seized on the moment to launch a cou-
rageous, but unsuccessful attempt to topple Saddam Hussein from power this
past March.  In the aftermath of his army's defeat, Saddam Hussein unleashed
the still-capable remnants of his battered force against the Kurdish population of
northern Iraq, triggering a desperate human exodus towards sanctuaries in the
bordering nations of Turkey, Iran, and to a lesser extent, Syria.
   As the media of the world focused on the developing human tragedy of the
Kurdish people fleeing by the hundreds of thousands before a vengeful Iraqi
Army, worldwide outrage galvanized allied coalition support. From the moment
the decision was made to air drop supplies to the fleeing refugees on 7 April,
it was clear that there was yet another chapter to be written about DESERT
SHIELD/DESERT STORM.       It would become known as PROVIDE
COMFORT.
   As the situation unfolded during March and early April, the Kurds' flight
ended in the mountains of southern Turkey,       where an estimated 500,000
refugees were massed, having been pushed over the border and herded into
so-called `sanctuaries" by Turkish forces.  To the east and south, an estimated
1.3 million Kurdish refugees huddled in similar camps along the Iranian border.
The fate of this group has yet to be determined.
   It was during the last few days of March that BGen Richard Potter, USA,
was ordered to insert his 10th Special Forces Group into the refugee camps.  At
this time there were 12 such camps with an average population of approximately
45,000.    Conservative estimates had     approximately 600 people dying of
exposure, malnutrition, and disease daily.  In this area of the world, March is
still a winter month and many camps abutted snow-capped peaks.    The many
trails from Iraq were littered with abandoned possessions that no longer served
any ufllity-bwkendown cars, appliances, family heirlooms, furniture, suitcases
that had become too heavy to carry, and tragically, people who were unable to