Kurdish Exodus From Iraq

ISIKVEREN, TURKEY, 1991: Detail of a woman's foot bound in a rag to cover a wound sustained as she crossed the Zagros mountain range to escape imminent persecution at the hands of the Republican Guard. 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)