Jiro Ose

War in Northern Iraq

At the end of the First Gulf War, Allies established the safe haven in northern Iraq called Kurdistan. Amid the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from three northern provinces, Iraqi Kurdistan emerged as an autonomous entity inside Iraq.

US solder bodysearch Iraqis before crossing a bridge at the city of Tikrit soon after the American forces took a full control of the city.
  
Zubayda Sadiq Khani, 63, grieves for her relative died in the chemical attack by Iraqi Army 15 years ago at Halabja Martyrs Cemetery. Town of Halabja sits by the mountain where the PUK (Patriatic Union of Kurdistan) and Ansar al-Islam, Islamic militant group are fighting, and sound of shelling could be heard as people grieve for their loved ones.
  
4-year-old Bawan Ahmad Salih holds his toy AK-47 assult rifle at his uncle's house in Kurdish border town of Kalar, Northern Iraq. AK is weapon of choice for Kurdish male, and they can be seen everywhere, even as a toy in the hands of children.
     
  
Iraqui men endures the freezing rain on the hill of Kurdistan. Afraid of another chemical attack by Saddam Husein, he and his family left his village into the hills.
   
Kurdish solder takes a nap inside a mosk in the village of Gulp, which was taken over recently from Ansar al-Islam, Islamic fundamentalist group.
   
Kurdish solders take cigarette break on the hill overlooking the area controled by Saddam Hussein.
     
  
Kurdish solders fire Katyusha multiple rocket launcher into Saddam Hussein's posisitons.
   
Diagram explaining different hand granades at the camp of Ansar al Islam, Kurdish Isramic fundamentalist group.
  
A boy run to US M-1 tank at a government cotton ginnery in Kirkuk.
     
  
Turkmen boy's lifeless body laid on a hood of a taxi as the crowd blamed the killing for Kurdish solders. Turkmen are ethinc minority in Kurdishtan. The crowd left the body on the street after the protest.
  
American solders try to secure the govenment cotton ginnery from looters in Kiruk.
  
Kurds cheer for the fall of Saddam Hussein on the street of Sulymania.
     
  
Kurdish man tries to smash the face of Saddam Hussein's statue on the day the City. of Kirkuk fell from the hand of Saddam Hussein.
   
Kurdish man wares his hardship on his face as he waits to leave the village of Chamchamal, which borders the area controled by Saddam Hussain. Town residents began evacuating their houses due to the loomig war, in fear of chemical attack.
   
Disfigured portrait of Saddam Hussein in the City of Kirkuk.
     
  
Busy money exchange market in the city of Sulymania in Kurdistan. If you are leaving Kurdistan into the area controled by Saddam, you need his money.
   
Kirkuk residents celebrate the fall of Kirkuk with any means possible.
   
Kurdish children found a new use of Saddam's statue , making into a swing at a main square in northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk.
     
  
Residents of an Arab village near Kirkuk armed themselves for the protection from Kurds, afraid of retaliation when Suddan Hussein's forces left the city.
   
A young boy picks out what is left of a super market in northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk on the day the Saddam Hussain's oil town fell .
  
Brian Clark of the 1st Light Armored Division does his chore at Saddam Hussain's palece in the city of Tikrit.