1.   Leaders of countries where the Kurds live have often sponsored Kurdish rebellions in neighboring lands while massacring Kurds on their own territory.

2.   Saddam Hussein remained in power, eliminating opponents, crushing a Kurdish rebellion in the north and a Shiite rebellion in the south.

3.   The village guard system was conceived more than a decade ago as the Kurdish rebellion was intensifying.

4.   Both Iran and Turkey are fighting Kurdish rebellions on their own territories.

5.   Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Kurds fled to Turkey when Saddam attempted to crush a Kurdish rebellion following the Gulf War.

6.   Irbil had not been attacked by Iraqi forces since Saddam Hussein quashed the Kurdish rebellion after the Gulf War.

7.   Like Turkey, Iran is dealing with a Kurdish rebellion for an independent homeland.

8.   Recent decades have seen Kurdish rebellions in Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

9.   Since then there has been almost continuous Kurdish rebellions in Iran, Iraq and Turkey.

10.   The government last week launched a military operation into northern Iraq, its largest ever, to stamp out the Kurdish rebellion.