Kurdish Exodus From Iraq

ISIKVEREN, TURKEY, 1991: Hundreds of Kurdish males are held back as they await an American aid helicopter to land at a wasteland near the Turkish town of Isikveren. The Iraqi Kurdish community fled persecution from Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard reprisals on them after the Iraqi army was forced to flee Kuwait which they had invaded in 1990, beaten back by the allied forces of the US, Britain and France. Fleeing across the ice and snow capped Zagros mountain range in sub zero temperatures many of the old and infirm perished before reaching the valley at Isikveren, Turkey. In their thousands they set up camp as best they could until aid arrived though initially a reluctant Turkish government did little to ease their plight until US aid was dropped in by air and a contingent of American troops tried to organise food and medical aid alongside MSF (Doctors Without Borders) though the sick continued to die from disease and the cold. (Photo by Derek Hudson/Getty Images)