The
1991 uprisings in Iraq were a series of popular rebellions in northern and southern Iraq in March and April 1991 after the
Gulf War. The mostly uncoordinated insurgency, often referred to as the
Sha'aban Intifada among
Arabs and as the
National Uprising among
Kurds, was fueled by the perception that then
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was responsible for systemic social repression and had become vulnerable to regime change. This perception of weakness was largely the result of the outcome of two prior wars: the
Iran–Iraq War and the invasion of Kuwait, both of which occurred within a single decade and devastated the economy and population of Iraq.