Major THOMAS(by Private Notice) asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has any information with regard to the hostilities now taking place in Iraq?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister)I have been asked to reply. In the sum- 144 mer of last year serious inter-tribal raid-mg brake out in a remote frontier region of Iraqi Kurdistan, where the administrative authority of the Iraqi Government had never been fully established. The principal offender was a certain Kurdish chief, Sheikh Ahmad of Barzan, who had started a religion which he sought to impose on neighbouring tribes by a campaign of pillage and murder. Pacific measures to restrain the Sheikh's depredations having failed, the Iraqi Government were forced to the conclusion that military measures must be taken to restore order and to bring the affected tribes under control. Meanwhile winter had supervened, and owing to severe climatic conditions and the mountainous character of the region, military operations were rendered impossible until the spring.
On the 15th March a strong punitive force of the Iraqi Army moved into the affected area, and are now engaged in establishing civil administration and police control. British and Iraqi Air Force units are co-operating. There have already been a few brushes with the rebels, and British aircraft engaged on reconnaissance duties have come under fire, unfortunately resulting in the death of one British airman on the 3rd April and the wounding of another.
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERUnder the orders of the Officer commanding the Royal Air Force in Iraq with the approval of the High Commissioner in Iraq.