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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (88777)	4/1/2003 12:41:35 PM
From: NickSE	Respond to of 281500

The tide is starting to turn against the regime. Cooperation from the Iraqis in the north now. Iraqis not afraid to show enthusiasm for GIs washingtontimes.com QARA HANJIR, Iraq — Iraqis in the north are welcoming the budding American military presence with undisguised enthusiasm in sharp contrast with those in the south, who often view U.S. and British troops with suspicion. "If the USA comes here, we'll get our freedom," businessman Soleyman Qassab wrote in the local newspaper. "It's time to welcome the American military." Mr. Qassab, who owns the MaDonal's burger joint modeled on the famous American chain, has promised any U.S. soldier who stops by his restaurant free meals for a week. While coalition forces and the Iraqi military have clashed in southern cities in recent days, the United States and Kurdish fighters are coordinating military strikes against President Saddam Hussein's forces. "The bombing is for a greater good," says Mohammad Nazim, a Kurdish "peshmerga" warrior guarding this recently captured outpost more than 12 miles into territory formerly held by the Iraqi government. "It's for the freedom of our country." Standing on a ridge at an abandoned Iraqi garrison overlooking the oil-rich, Saddam-controlled city of Kirkuk, he and other Kurdish soldiers watched with joy as antiaircraft tracers, explosions and fire lit up the city and the rumble of explosions shook the ground. Thousands of Kurdish militiamen and hundreds of U.S. Special Forces cooperated closely during the weekend to crush an Islamist militant group linked to al Qaeda. Since then, hundreds of Kurdish militiamen have taken over positions surrounding Kirkuk, coming to within 12 miles of the city as it endures nightly coalition bombing raids. While Baghdad officials speak defiantly about Iraqi resistance, Barham Salih, prime minister of the Sulaymaniyah-based Kurdish government, said air raids have dealt the Iraqi army a serious blow. "The Iraqi military is caught in a difficult situation between the allied bombardment on the one hand and Saddam's death squads on the other." On Saturday, witnesses near the Iraqi city of Halabja described heavy machine-gun fire and bombardment aimed at cave and canyon hide-outs of Ansar, a 650- to 700-member Islamist group with ties to Afghan "jihadi" warriors who trained with Osama bin Laden and with elements of the Iraqi regime. In an interview, Mr. Salih called the attack a serious blow against terrorism, saying many of those killed were Afghan-Arabs who had fought and trained in Afghanistan, though he could not specify an exact number. Seventeen peshmergas and between 120 and 150 Ansar militants were killed in the fighting, said Mr. Salih. "It was a very tough battle," he said. "You're talking about a bunch of terrorists who are very well-trained and well-equipped." U.S. planes carrying supplies and equipment have landed almost nightly in northern Iraq. Six landed Saturday night, said an eyewitness living near the Bakrajo airstrip, six miles west of Sulaymaniyah. Kurds control a Switzerland-size slice of northern Iraq beyond the control of Saddam. Islamist militants control pockets of territory abutting the Iranian border. Mr. Salih defended the American military strategy and said that much of the resistance to the U.S.-led invasion was coming from Saddam loyalists and Arab volunteers with ties to terrorist organizations. "There is really not that much resistance by the Iraqi military," he said. "This regime has been in power for over 35 years. It has developed a constituency, a hard core of people who have everything to lose with Saddam's demise. These guys will resist." While the southern front against Saddam's regime is focused on the cities of Basra, Nasiriyah and Baghdad, the northern front will concentrate on the key oil cities of Kirkuk and Mosul as well as Tikrit, Saddam's hometown. During the past few days, Iraqi forces surrounding Kirkuk have retreated up to 12 miles from the line separating them from Kurdish-held territory. Kurds eagerly have occupied the depopulated no man's land. Mr. Salih suggested the forces had retreated because Iraqi soldiers, including two low-level commanders, had begun to desert. Still, Kurdish control over the areas vacated by the Iraqis remains shaky, and Saddam has begun shelling civilian positions in the Kurdish-held city of Chamchamal.