NOFLY ZONE

No-Fly Zone: translation

Following the abortive Kurdish uprising againstSaddam Husseinin March 1991 and the horrific Kurdishrefugeeexodus that ensued, theUnited States,Great Britain, andFrance

imposed a no-fly zone above the 36th parallel inIraqto allow the Kurds to return to their homes without fear of being attacked anymore. The no-fly zone was enforced by allied aircraft based in southeasternTurkeyand supposedly sanctioned byUNSecurity Council Resolution 688 of 5 April 1991, which condemned "the repression of the Iraqi civilian population .. . in Kurdish populated areas" and demanded "that Iraq . . . immediately end this repression."

Also calledOperation Provide Comfort(after 1 January 1997,Operation Northern Watchand without further French participation), the no-fly zone provided the protection and security that allowed the formation of a de facto Kurdish state that covered some 17,000 square miles in much of northern Iraq. The United States and Great Britain also maintained a much less successful no-fly zone over the southern part of Iraq in an attempt to offer some protection to the IraqiShiites.

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 that overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein, the no-fly zone was no longer necessary and therefore was terminated. In retrospect, it can be considered one of the background actions that eventually resulted in today'sKurdistan Regional Government(KRG) becoming a constituentfederalstate of present-day Iraq.

See alsoGulf War II.