Turning Up the Heat
By Babak Dehghanpisheh
March 24 — The U.S.-led military campaign in northern Iraq seems to be coming to a head as frontline positions separating the semi-autonomous Kurdish zone from the rest of the country were bombarded today. In addition, military planes, thought to be transporting American soldiers, have begun landing at two local airstrips, Bakrajo and Harir, since Saturday night.
THE ATTACKS BEGAN at approximately 9:45 a.m. local time (1:45 a.m. ET). Eyewitnesses saw a ridge overlooking Chamchamal—a Kurdish-held city only about 12 miles from oil-rich Kirkuk—erupt in plumes of smoke after six powerful bombs detonated in succession. While American bombs did hit Kirkuk and Mosul last Friday, those cities are outside the Kurdish area. Today’s barrage, by contrast, landed on the unofficial border that marks off this enclave from Saddam Hussein’s territory.
The explosions shook buildings in the city and sent several residents scrambling for cover. Kurdish military commanders in Chamchamal say a radio tower and bunkers along the ridge were targeted and an ambulance could be seen ferrying away the wounded. Bombs also fell on Kirkuk later in the evening, a 30-minute attack that was punctuated by bright flashes and rumbling explosions.
The bombing this morning, coupled with a noticeable buildup in the number of U.S. Special Forces in the region, indicate that a ground assault on Iraqi frontline positions in the north may be only days away. And Kurdish forces could be joining up with the U.S. military for the attack. High-ranking military officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the party that controls the eastern half of the Kurdish enclave, were seen at a meeting with Special Forces soldiers near the front-line yesterday.
The U.S. goals, however, may be twofold. For the past two days, PUK soldiers and U.S. Special Forces have been building up near the eastern city of Halabja, suggesting that the first joint operation may be directed at another foe—Ansar al Islam, a group of Islamic militants dug into a series of remote mountain villages. The attack wouldn’t be a surprise. Dozens of Tomahawk missiles rained down on the Ansar enclave—thought to hold approximately 750 soldiers, including hardened Afghanistan-trained Arab fighters—on Friday night. Smaller bombing raids followed on Saturday and Sunday morning. But Kurdish officials maintain that a ground assault, preferably with U.S. military aid, would be needed to dislodge Ansar from their mountain stronghold. “We would welcome American ground forces to be rid of these terrorists for good,” says Barham Salih, the PUK prime minister who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by Ansar operatives last year.
Ansar, a group that has been linked to Al Qaeda, seems unlikely to give in easily. On Saturday afternoon, an orange and white taxi, carrying two passengers, drove up to Girde Go, a military checkpoint near Halabja. Guards at the checkpoint looked over the driver, a slim man in his mid-30s with a black mustache, and inspected the car, which was leaving Ansar territory. After a quick check, the car was waved on and the driver pulled up next to a crowd waiting at the checkpoint. Most of the crowd comprised displacees from Ansar territory waiting for news about relatives left behind.
Two journalists from Australian television were filming the crowd when the car exploded. “Fire shot up from the car and black pieces flew into the sky,” says Marwan Ali Aziz, 24, a PUK guard at the checkpoint. “I saw one woman with half of her body on fire.” The attack wounded eleven and killed four, including Paul Moran, a cameraman for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Kurdish officials warned today that three more cars loaded with explosives are roaming Suleimaniya, Iraqi Kurdistan’s second largest city, looking for Western targets. The weekend attack was a stark reminder of just how vulnerable they are.
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