26                           HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS IN NORTHERN IRAQ, 1991:

from Turkey and Iran. It envisioned a series of relay points along major routes
leading from the refugee camps to locations in northern Iraq. Later that same
day, the American Consulate at Adana announced that President Ozal had agreed
to establish a humanitarian service support base near fl~e Turkish town of Silopi.
The military unit sent to Silopi was assigned to the Haj facility used by pilgrims
making their way to the holy shrines of Islam. A newer facility would be used
for refugees in urgent need of medical care. Permission was also granted to send
humanitarian service support detachi~ents (HSSDs) to the towns of Diyarbakir
and Isikveren.2S
    This mission would not be easy. Kurdistan was located far from existing
bases in some of the region's most forbidding terrain and weather. The political
climate was uncertain. The Turks and Iranians had a long history of problems
with the Kurds and were lukewarm about providing assistance at first. Peshmerga
guerrillas and the Iraqi Army were still fighting, so the Americans had to avoid
taking sides in a historical civil conflict.

                           24th MEU Forward

    Phibron 8 made landfall at Iskenderun Harbor on the evening of 13 April.29
The next morning, operational control of the 24th MEU (SOC) was transferred
to Combined Task Force Provide Comfort. General Jamerson told Colonel Jones
to establish a forward supply base and a forward area rearming/refueling point
at Silopi, an agricultural village located about 450 miles east of Iskenderun in the
Taurus Mountains. To best accomplish this task, Colonel Jones created a special
purpose force, the 24th MEU Forward, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Joe
Byrtus from HMM-264.
    This ad hoc unit was to fly to Silopi, establish a coInn~nd post, set up an air
control  system, and put  a helicopter expeditionary refueling system     into
operation. The 24th MEU Forward included persor1nel from llMM-264, MACO-
28, MWSS-272, and MSSG-24. Follow-on elements included command, ground
security, aviation, and logistics personnel. A convoy of buses and trucks departed
Iskenderun but did not arrive at Silopi for almost 36 hours.30
    Silopi was a sleepy farming village in Turkey's isolated Hakkari Province,
located about eight miles from the Habur Bridge, the gateway to northern Iraq.
Silopi was so small and unimportant it did not appear on most maps of the area.
There was no airfield, no railhead, and a poor road network. Only a single hard-
surface highway ran through the mountains to reach this small town in eastern
Anatolia. Silopi was an agricultural trade center for local wheat farmers. Visiting
there was like traveling far back in time. Its people lived in mud brick huts with
straw roofs and had no electricity. Cultivation was done by hand instead of by
machine. Skinny mules pulled wooden plows to break the ground. Entire families
took to the fields with scythes in hand when it was time to harvest the grain.
However, life in Silopi changed radically after the helicopters of HMM-264
dropped from the sky. The local peasants, unaware of the world situation  that