Military

2d Infantry Division

During the Gulf War, the US 2d Armored Division's Tiger Brigade advance split the seam between the Iraqi III and IV Corps, overrunning elements of the Iraqi 14th, 7th, and 36th Infantry Divisions, as well as brigades of the Iraqi 3d Armored, 1st Mechanized, and 2d Infantry Divisions. During four days of combat Tiger Brigade task forces destroyed or captured 181 tanks, 148 armored personnel carriers, 40 artillery pieces, and 27 antiaircraft systems while killing an estimated 263 enemy and capturing 4,051 prisoners of war, all at a cost of 2 killed and 5 wounded. [At least one source claims that the 2d Infantry Division did not deploy to the Kuwait Theater of Operations, but remained attached to I Corps in Kurdistan, though all other sources place the division under II Corps on the coastal region north of Kuwait City.]

In the early 1990s the Iraqi National Congress began to build an army, and the CIA trained the INC to coordinate the March 1995 attack. On the eve of the planned attack, the US withdrew support and the March 1995 attack failed. On 19 March 1995 Patriotic Union of Kurdistan officials reported that in the early hours of the morning opposition forces overran Iraqi military positions in the sectors of Chemchamal, Qara-Hanjir, Shwan and Jabari (in the Kirkuk province). Initial reports from the area claimed that bases of three battalions (affiliated with the 4th and 2nd brigades of the 2nd Division) including more than 51 bunkers had been overran: 122 Iraqi soldiers and officers surrendered; and a large amount of military equipment and supplies had been captured including. Captured equipment was claimed to include two T55 tanks, one Armored Personnel Carrier, three long-range artillery, five 120mm mortar, five 82mm mortars, 17 60mm mortars, nine SPG9 anti-tanks weapons, six doshka heavy machine-guns, three 37mm anti-air defenses, two 57mm artillery units, and more than 300 pieces of light weapons and communication equipment. Iraqi military forces were reported to have suffered heavy casualties, including two officers (a Colonel and a Captain) who according to some reports were killed by defecting soldiers.) In these clashes, three Peshmargas were killed and 15 wounded. These Iraqi military positions were the source of much shelling and bombardment of Kurdish communities in the area of Chemchamal over the previous few weeks.

In December 2000 it was reported that Iraq had begun to form a special corps called "Al-Maqdis," to be stationed near the Syrian and Jordanian borders. Reportedly, the new corps would consist of elements from the 2nd mechanized infantry division, in addition to two divisions from "Saddam Fedayeen," and a brigade from the Republican Guard's Hammurabi Division. According to other reports, in December 2000 Saddam Hussein's youngest son, Qusay, was said to have visited Syria to discuss contingency plans for Syrian-Iraqi military cooperation in the event of an Israeli attack. Qusay reportedly agreed to establish a joint command and control center and place two Iraqi armored divisions (the 10th Armored Division and an unspecified Republican Guard division) on a state of heightened readiness for deployment to Syria.