Kurds report that the Iraqi 12th Republican Guards division is assembling on the border of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq and that an attack is imminent. The region has been largely autonomous and under UN protection for the last nine years. The US launched a major cruise missile attack on Iraq in 1996 when Iraqi troops moved into the Kurdish area, and then withdrew. The US has warned Iraq not to try another invasion, but it is unclear exactly what the US could do to stop it.