All right! >>Armor arrives as troops fan out
By David Filipov, Globe Staff, 3/29/2003
HARIR, Iraq -- Flying with their landing lights off, waves of US cargo planes crammed with tanks and equipment touched down last night on a pitch-black airfield here in northern Iraq, boosting the effort to open a second front against Saddam Hussein's regime.
The planes unloaded Humvee off-road vehicles, Bradley fighting vehicles, and tanks onto the runway in the Harir Valley, 30 miles south of the Turkey border. The field was illuminated only by dim chemical lights on the edges of the perilously short airstrip.
US commanders have said the forces landing on the airstrip, which was secured Wednesday by about 1,000 American paratroopers, could be used to fight Islamic militants in the Kurdish- controlled autonomous zone in northern Iraq or help capture the strategic oil-producing cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.
Yesterday, six Humvees full of soldiers carrying heavy machine guns headed off from the Harir airbase on the road south, possibly towards Halabja, where a group of radical Islamic fighters is based. US and Kurdish forces yesterday pounded mountain hide-outs of Ansar al-Islam with bombs and missiles and seized some ground from the group, which the United States says has ties to Al Qaeda.
Later in the day, two American MH-53 helicopters took off from the airfield, carrying troops in the direction of Chamchamal, near the Iraqi front lines. The MH-53 Super Stallions are used by US special forces.
Two more of the large black helicopters waited on the field near the tarmac, where there were two rows of Humvees and other equipment, as well as what looked like two tanks with protective covers.
The paratroopers of the 173d Airborne Brigade fanned out around the perimeter of the field, backed by a similar number of Kurdish fighters. The Americans had a rough first 24 hours in northern Iraq, first making a dramatic nighttime drop into the airstrip, then digging their heavy equipment out of the mud. Yesterday, some of the soldiers took advantage of the first clear weather in awhile here to catch some rays.
While the paratroopers rested, US warplanes struck hard for the third straight day at Iraqi front-line positions outside the village of Kalak, 25 miles from Mosul.
As jets roared overhead, two large blasts echoed from several miles inside Hussein-held territory, where Kurdish traders who have traveled back and forth from Mosul say Iraqi artillery positions are stationed.
The Kurds had hoped the airstrikes would cause demoralized Iraqi soldiers to surrender en masse. Instead, most of the Iraqis in the northwestern part of the Kurdish zone have stayed at their positions, compelled, Kurdish commanders say, by the presence of special squads whose orders are to execute would-be deserters.
Still, Iraqi opposition leaders yesterday repeated their call to government troops to turn and fight the regime. Kurdish officials say they are holding several hundred defectors.
On the ridge overlooking Kalak, Iraqi soldiers showed no signs of surrendering or defecting. Instead, they were seen rushing around, apparently making preparations for the next wave of airstrikes.
Mosul also appeared to be taking a steady pounding. On this clear day, a large plume of smoke could be seen rising from the direction of the city from 40 miles away, although it was unclear whether this was an oil fire or damage from airstrikes.
As the United States prepared for a possible offensive in the north, Kurdish officials announced they were preparing camps to hold as many as 500,000 people fleeing territory still controlled by the government. But they said they faced severe equipment shortages.
The interior minister of the Kurdish administration, Karim Sinjari, said crews were installing electricity and building roads and sanitation facilities. But he said Kurds are struggling with a severe shortage of tents, generators, and fuel. Iraqi authorities closed the border with the Kurdish region shortly before the war began, and government troops have since mined roads and bridges along the border areas.
Sinjari also said Kurdish authorities, lacking gas masks and other protective equipment, would soon begin teaching their people how to protect against chemical or biological attacks using common household items.<<
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