The 1st Corps was a corps of the Iraqi Army, established before the Iran–Iraq War. It was located in Kurdistan Region In 1977–78 British military attaches' reports from Baghdad said the 4th Infantry Division was part of the corps, with divisional headquarters at Mosul and brigades at Mosul (5th), Dohuk (18th), Sinjar (21st), plus two unlocated reserve brigades, the 93rd and 99th. Other divisions of the corps reportedly included the 2nd Division at Kirkuk with five brigades, including two reserve; the 7th Division at Sulaimaniyah with five brigades (all active); and the 8th Division at Erbil with six brigades, including the 91st, 95th, and 98th Reserve Brigades. At the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War, Malovany shows corps headquarters at Kirkuk; the 11th Infantry Division with elements north of the Ranwanduz - Rayat road; and the 7th Infantry Division advancing from its bases at Sulaimaniyah towards the border between Penjwin and Sayid Sadiq. Ahead of Operation Dawn-4, units of the 1st Corps spent two months in their trenches waiting for the Iranians to attack. The offensive came on 19 October 1983 as the Iranians and Peshmerga guerrillas of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan took of territory. This included a number of Kurdish villages and exerted a significant amount of pressure on Penjwin. Saddam Hussein responded with a counterattack, using the Iraqi Republican Guard and poison gas. However, they failed to dislodge the Iranians, who were dug-in and reinforced by Kurdish fighters. The anti-Kurdish Anfal campaign was mounted between February and September 1988. While the Anfal campaign may have been initially conceived by the Iraqi government as a purely military campaign to destroy an insurgent movement, Kurds were killed for being Kurds, and it became ethnicised. The 1st Corps, under Lieutenant General Sultan Hashem, at Kirkuk, handled most Anfal operations, alongside the 5th Corps. Units were transferred south out of the 1st Corps to build up Iraqi forces in the south after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. In 1991 the "Iraqi I Corps controlled two infantry divisions, several independent mechanized brigades, and an elite special assault brigade. These forces were stationed in or near Dohuk Province." The Iraqi 44th Infantry Division was headquartered in Zakho. During Operation Provide Comfort, "[b]y mid-May [1991], the allied security zone spread from the Turkish border about three-quarters of the way across Iraq toward the Iranian border. The 3d Commando Brigade pushed west and nudged