WITH MARINES iN OPERATION PROVIDE COMFORT                             61

been erected. These were the first of more than 10,000 tents that would be put
up in three camps that eventually housed more than 180,000 refugees! The BLT
Bravo Command Group, Companies E and H, the artillery, assault amphibians,
and a light armored vehicle detachment remained at the Iraqi border ready to
move into Zakho the next day .73
   Lieutenant Colonel Kohl, commanding officer of MSSG-24, was given an
unusual operational mission by Colonel Jones. The Turkish-iraqi border crossing
at Habur was closed, but had to be opened to allow overland supply of the
assault force. This task would normally have been given to the ground combat
element, but Lieutenant Colonel Corwin was busy conducting the assault, so
Kohl was tasked to do fl~is. Lieutenant Colonel Kohl, First sergeant Delgado, a
five-member civilian relief team, and a rifle squad departed Silopi for Habur
during mid-afternoon of 20 April.
   During Desert Storm the Iraqis had dropped both bridge spans at Habur and
mined the roadway leading to Zakho, but since the cease fire, a field expedient
bridge had since been thrown across the river. Reports indicated the Iraqis had
removed some, but not all of the mines. At Habur, Lieutenant Colonel Kohl
located a Turkish lieutenant who spoke broken English. Kohl patiently explained
the crossing was to be opened to allied traffic the next morning. The Turkish


A fast attack vehicie (FAV) on patrol carries two U.S. and one British Marine as it crosses the
Khabur River in Central Z�}kho. A FA V is an M151 jeep mounting eitl~er a machine gun or a TOW
antitank missile.