A brief history of the Iraqi Kurds

· 1920 - Treaty of Sevres, which carved up the Ottoman Empire after World War I, calls for the creation of a Kurdish state. But the plan collapses and the Kurds are split, mainly among Iran, Iraq, and Turkey.

· 1931 - Ahmad Barzani, grandfather of current Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani, launches rebellion against Iraq. He is eventually defeated.

· 1961 - Mustafa Barzani, father of Massoud Barzani, starts a new round of armed resistance against Iraqi rule that lasts for 14 years.

· 1988 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launches scorched-earth campaign against Kurds. Thousands are killed in poison gas attacks.

· 1991 - In March, shortly after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War, Kurdish guerrillas seize several key towns in northern Iraq. Baghdad crushes the rebellion, sending some 2 million Kurds fleeing to Iran and Turkey. Thousands die of exposure in the mountains. The United States, Britain and France establish a "safe haven" for Kurds in northern Iraq.

· 1992 - In May, the first elections for a Kurdish assembly leave Massoud Barzani's KDP and Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in a dead heat.

· 1994 - The two main Kurdish factions begin battling each other, leaving about 2,000 dead before the United States mediates a fragile cease-fire in August 1995.

· 1996 - On Aug. 17, the main Kurdish rivals resume fighting one another. On Aug. 31, the Iraqi army sends thousands of troops into northern Iraq and captures Irbil, the main city, handing it over to the KDP.