after the first gulf war ended in 1991, air power continued to play a significant role in containing saddam hussein's regime in iraq, as did a naval blockade and united nations economic sanctions. together those forces also crippled the economic and military foundations of hussein's power. the air national guard participated widely in that long campaign, which featured u.s. and coalition aircraft maintaining two no-fly zones over portions of iraq: operation southern watch (osw) and operation northern watch (onw). in addition, ang units provided humanitarian aid to the kurdish population in northern iraq. later deploying units to turkey participated in operation northern watch that was focused strictly on enforcing the no-fly zone above the 36th parallel in iraq as mandated by the un and did not include humanitarian relief for the kurds.