Since then repeated militant attempts to make Kurdistan a political reality were brutally suppressed by both Ankara and Baghdad. In 1988, Saddam Hussein followed up a massive military operation against the Kurds with a chemical weapons strike, razing entire villages to the ground and killing and maiming thousands. After the end of the Gulf War, Kurdish rebels seized key towns in northern Iraq, but were crushed by Saddam. Over two million Kurds fled to Iran and Turkey, and thousands died of exposure in the mountains.