“By March 1991 his [Saddam Hussein’s] regime was so worried about losing its grip [on power due to the post-Gulf War Shiite uprising in the south of Iraq] that it ordered helicopters to drop bombs full of Sarin nerve gas on Shiite rebels in Karbala and Najaf. It was a rash step given that the U.S. forces that had evicted the Iraqis from Kuwait were still sitting on Iraqi territory south of the Euphrates. It was Saddam’s good fortune that the bombs malfunctioned and that the episode was not publicly confirmed until after the fall of Baghdad twelve years later.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II, Pages 63-64