Humanitarian· Kurdish Relief (Op PROVIDE COMFORT)
Op PROVIDE COMFORT
Operation Provide Comfort was the humanitarian relief and protection mission mounted in northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein's forces crushed a Kurdish uprising and drove hundreds of thousands of Kurds into the mountains along the Turkish border, where they faced exposure, hunger, and disease. A coalition effort, including United States Marines, moved to deliver relief and to establish a protected zone in which the refugees could return to their homes in safety. The Marines and other forces provided aid, security, and the organizational backbone of the relief effort, distributing supplies and helping shield the Kurdish population from further attack. The operation succeeded in halting the humanitarian catastrophe and allowing the displaced to come down from the mountains, and it established a security framework in the north that would endure for years. Provide Comfort was a model of large-scale humanitarian intervention backed by military force.
Engagements in this conflict (4)
Record no. 735