Kurdish Opposition in Iraq
The Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) are the two major Kurdish opposition parties operating within northern Iraq. The two groups are composed of about 40,000 troops, making them the largest armed group opposed to Saddam Hussein.

A longtime target of oppression by Saddam's government, both parties support regime change in Iraq. Their current area of operation, relatively protected by no-fly zones in Northern Iraq, has left them in a better position in a possible fight against Baghdad. Both parties want to know who would take Saddam's place before they will agree to help.

The KDP, the larger of the two groups, was established in 1946 under the leadership of Mustafa Barzani, a prominent Kurdish leader.

The PUK was created in 1975 after a failed Kurdish rebellion in Iraq. Jalal Talabani, a KDP leader, broke away to form a party that would "provide a new direction for Kurdish resistance and society."

Since the split, both groups have competed with one another; regional rivals such as Turkey, Iraq, and Iran have exacerbated this rivalry by forming coalitions with the different factions to keep them at odds with one another.

Both groups were brought together under the Iraqi National Congress (link to Iraq National Congress profile), an alliance formed with the help of the United States as an opposition party to Saddam Hussein following the Gulf War.

In 1994, internal rifts between factions split the KDP from the Iraqi National Congress, leading to violent clashes between the groups. The U.S. has made repeated efforts to mend the rifts between the parties, and although they now coexist peacefully, many differences remain.

-- By Emily Birr, Online NewsHour