The Iraq Crisis

CSIS__________________________________________ Center for Strategic and International Studies 1800 K Street N.W. Washington, DC 20006 Phone: (202) 775-3270 Fax: (202) 466-4740 Internet: CSIS.ORG The Iraq Crisis: A Chronology of the “War of Sanctions” Anthony H. Cordesman Co-Director CSIS Middle East Studies Program December 2, 1998 Copyright Anthony H. Cordesman, all rights reserved. Iraq Crisis: Background Chronology 12/4/98 Page 2 88-3-16: Iraq bombards Halabja with mustard gas and nerve gas in an attempt to disband an Iranian force and Kurdish rebels that had captured this city twenty four hours earlier. More than 5,000 people, mainly civilians, lose their lives after being blinded, burned or asphyxiated by the deadly gas. 91-1-12: Congress authorizes the President to use US Armed Forces to implement some of the UN resolutions in Public Law 102-1 (H.J.Res. 77), passed by Congress on Jan. 12, 1991, and signed into law by President Bush on Jan. 14, 1991. Congress reaffirms its approval of the use of force against Iraq in the Defense Authorization Act for FY1992 (Section 1095, P.L. 102-190, Dec. 5, 1991). 91-2-1: US and allies drive Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Later in the year US, British and French planes start patrolling Iraq's northern skies to shield Iraq's Kurds from attack by Iraq. 91-3-1: Kurdish minority launches insurrection but are also crushed. Thousands flee or die of exposure in the mountains. The US, Britain and France establish a "safe haven" for the Kurds north of the 36th parallel, an area from which Iraqi planes are banned. Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq rebel and are quickly defeated by the elite Iraqi National Guard. 91-3-2: UN Security Council approves Resolution 686, which sets out the allies' conditions for a cease-fire. 91-3-3: UN Coalition and Iraq agrees to informal cease-fire. Iraqis accept virtually all allied terms for the cease-fire, which include a ban on Iraq's use of fixed wing military aircraft inside Iraq. President Bush interprets the resolution as preventing Iraq from using helicopter gunships to quash the Kurdish and Shi'ite rebellions against Saddam that broke out within days of the end of the war. Iraqi helicopter flights were not specifically barred under the informal cease-fire agreement. -- Iraq accepts terms of UN Security Council Resolution 686, establishing a cease-fire. 91-3-6: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was widely blamed for the suppression of the Kurds in 1988, appointed Interior Minister. The appointment came during the Shi'ite and Kurdish post-war uprisings. Ali was expected to act more forcefully to suppress the rebellions than his predecessor, Samir Abd al-Wahab al-Shaykhali. 91-3-20: US forces shoot down Iraqi fighters near the northern Kurdish city of Kirkuk, enforcing the March 3 agreement between the UN Coalition and Iraq that Iraq would not use fixed wing aircraft in combat against rebels inside Iraq. 91-4-1: UN monitors find evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime has falsified reports and hidden stocks of chemical and biological agents, while blocking access to selected sites and excluding Americans from the inspection teams. 91-4-5: Spokesman for Iraqi dissidents claims that the Iraqi army used chemical weapons against civilians in suppressing the Shi'ite and Kurdish post-war rebellions. No independent confirmation of the charge. -- UN Security Council adopts Resolution 688 in response to reports of the suppression by Iraq of the Kurdish and Shi'ite rebellions. Calls for an end to the repression and demands Iraq allow humanitarian access to its population. 91-4-6: Iraq formally accepts the terms of a permanent cease-fire as stipulated in UN 687. Also included in the agreement is UN supervised destruction of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missiles, and Iraq's agreement to contribute to a reparations fund. 91-4-10: Bush Administration warns Iraq not to fly aircraft or undertake military operations in areas where allied relief operations, primarily for the Kurds in the north, were taking place. The Administration defines the off-limits area primarily as anywhere north of the 36th parallel, where the allies were trying to create a safe haven for the Kurds and encourage their repatriation. -- American troops report isolated instances of Iraqi forces moving into US-occupied territory in southern Iraq as US forces thinned out in the region. The Iraqis were reportedly positioning themselves to crush further Shi'ite unrest in the south. 91-4-11: UN Security Council declares a formal end to the war after reviewing Iraq's message to ensure that Iraq's acceptance of UN terms was unconditional. 91-4-12: Iraqi forces launch attacks on Kurdish forces around Irbil, north of the 36th parallel in violation of US warnings. Other Iraqi attacks reportedly occurred in Kurdish areas south of the parallel, including Sulaymaniyah. Bush Administration spokesmen does not confirm the reports, adding that there had been no attempts by Iraq to impede the refugee relief operations for the Kurds in northern Iraq. 91-7-14: Iraq tells remaining UN personnel manning the relief center in southern Iraq to leave; the center is then closed down. Copyright Anthony H. Cordesman, all rights reserved. Iraq Crisis: Background Chronology 12/4/98 Page 3 91-4-16: President Bush decides to send US troops into northern Iraq to build refugee camps and guarantee protection for the Kurds, in conjunction with several European allies. 91-4-18: Iraq and the UN sign Memorandum of Understanding providing for a UN humanitarian presence in Iraq and the stationing of 500 UN security guards in northern Iraq to protect the relief operations. Agreement to remain in force until December 31, 1991, with the possibility for renewal. 91-4-21: About 200 armed Iraqi policemen enter the Kurdish town of Zakhu as Iraqi soldiers withdraw. The military withdrawal is the result of an agreement between the allies and the Iraqis as the allies were establishing a safe haven for the Kurds. A senior US military officer calls the arrival of the Iraqi police contrary to the spirit of the agreement. Iraq describes establishment of a security zone in northern Iraq as an infringement on its sovereignty. -- Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, headed and dominated by Saddam Hussein, expands a March 1991 amnesty for army deserters and granted a pardon for regime opponents. The amnesty does not apply to military officers. 91-4-22: Iraqi troops, which withdrew from Zakhu under the agreement with US military, return to the outskirts of Zakhu, deterring many Kurds from returning to their homes. Iraqis in and around Zakhu reported as friendly and not seeking confrontation with the allies, but some Iraqi troops overlooking Zakhu fire harassing machine-gun and mortar rounds. 91-4-24: In response to US warnings, Iraq agrees to move the troops several kilometers away from Zakhu. -- Iraqi Kurdish leaders announce they have agreed in principle with the Iraqi government on a formula to allow them autonomy in northern Iraq. (However, in later months, Iraq hardened its positions in the talks, and no agreement has been signed.) 91-4-25: Following US pressure, Iraq begins moving its armed policemen out of Zakhu as well. 91-5-7: US officials say Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery opened fire on two US reconnaissance jets over northern Iraq. Fifth such incident since the relief operation for the Kurds began. 91-5-8: US and Iraqi military officials meet to discuss the incident and, on May 9, Iraq assures US that such actions will not be repeated. 91-5-13: British marines exchange fire with Iraqi soldiers guarding Saddam Hussein's summer palace near Dahuk. The allies had allowed the Iraqi forces to retain control of the palace when the security zone for Kurdish refugees was expanded to the outskirts of Dahuk on May 2. The Iraqis, as requested, withdraw from the new areas being occupied by the allies. Dahuk is a Kurdish town in northern Iraq just outside the security zone set up by the UN Coalition to facilitate the return of Kurdish refugees to their homes. 91-5-14: Iraqi troops open fire as a US army helicopter flies past them just outside the allied security zone in northern Iraq. Helicopter is not hit. 91-5-22: Iraq agrees to withdraw from Dahuk itself and allow a small contingent of noncombatant military and civilian relief experts into the town to facilitate Kurdish repatriation. 91-5-24: Iraq, after initial opposition, signs agreement with the UN permitting the presence of UN security guards as a replacement for the allied troops in northern Iraq, when the allies withdraw. 91-6-5: Clashes between Iraqi troops and Kurdish demonstrators in several towns outside the allied security zone. US State Department says the Kurds may have provoked the violence in an effort to persuade US troops not to withdraw from northern Iraq. 91-6-6: The Bush Administration charges that massive shipments of flour (over 7 million pounds) intended for Kurdish refugees were diverted into the Iraqi Government's food rationing system. 91-6-23-28: Iraqi soldiers obstructed and, in one case fired warning shots at, UN inspectors attempting to oversee the destruction of Iraqi nuclear armaments parts. 91-7-15: Last Coalition troops leave Iraq. 91-7-19: Clash occurs in Sulaymaniyah, which result in Iraq's loss of control of that city to the Kurds. The Iraqis do not attempt to forcibly recapture Sulaymaniyah after it comes under Kurdish control. 91-7-21: Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, headed and dominated by Saddam, expands a March 1991 amnesty for army deserters and granted a pardon for regime opponents.

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