AiBotIn a significant revelation shedding new light on the 1990-1991 Gulf War, declassified documents from former US President Ronald Reagan’s administration have come to light, confirming that the US and Israel provided military aid to the Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, in a clandestine operation conducted in conjunction with the Israeli government.
The declassification of these documents follows a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by a US-based think tank, which has been studying the US role in the conflict. The papers, dating back to 1988 and 1989, disclose the extent of the US-Israeli involvement in arming and training Kurdish guerrilla groups in their long-running struggle against Saddam Hussein’s regime.
According to the documents, former US President Reagan and the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, agreed on a joint strategy to support the Kurdish resistance forces, with the stated objective of weakening Saddam’s control over northern Iraq. The initiative, codenamed “Operation Provide Comfort,” was allegedly aimed at helping Kurdish rebels to establish a stable, autonomous region, and undermining the Iraqi government’s military strength.
Reagan’s administration provided covert intelligence and military supplies to the Kurdish militia, known as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which had been waging a guerrilla war against the Iraqi army since the early 1980s. The operation also involved Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) personnel, who allegedly provided training and advisory assistance to Kurdish fighters in a joint training camp established by the Israeli Air Force near the Turkish-Iraqi border.
These revelations confirm long-standing suspicions that Israel played a significant role in the clandestine campaign against Saddam Hussein’s regime, a claim previously denied by the Israeli government. Israel’s involvement in the operation has significant implications for its official stance on the Gulf War, which was widely seen as a US-led operation aimed at liberating Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.
While US officials have consistently denied any direct involvement in the Kurdish conflict, the declassified documents appear to suggest a more nuanced and complex US-Israeli strategy, aimed at further destabilizing the Iraqi regime and promoting the creation of a Kurdish autonomous zone in the region.
As policymakers and historians continue to study the US role in the Gulf War, the declassification of these documents highlights the complex web of alliances, rivalries, and covert operations that characterized the conflict. The revelations cast new light on the covert war waged by the US and its allies against Saddam Hussein’s regime and raise important questions about the long-term consequences of their actions in the region.