Brig. Gen. Tzuri Sagi, Who Trained Barzani's Kurdish Rebels in Iraq, Dies at 92

Brig. Gen. (res.) Tzuri Sagi, the Israeli paratroop officer who advised Mustafa Barzani's Kurdish rebels against the Iraqi army, died Wednesday at 92. Sagi enlisted in 1952, fought in the 1950s reprisal operations, commanded a company of Battalion 890 at the Mitla Pass in 1956, and later led Sayeret Tzanhanim and Battalion 890. Sent to Iraqi Kurdistan under Israel's covert aid effort, he developed combat methods suited to the terrain, expanded sniper training and helped raise two assault battalions, some of whose men trained near Daliyat al-Karmel. In the Yom Kippur War he commanded forces on the Lebanese border and then reserve paratroopers Brigade 317, before his 1984 discharge.