Posted on 03/24/2003 5:24:57 PM PST by green team 1999
Northern front bursts into action with major air assault on Kirkuk
Mon Mar 24, 4:38 PM ET
CHAMCHAMAL, Iraq (AFP) - US-led forces carried out massive air strikes around Iraq (news - web sites)'s northern oil capital of Kirkuk, as pro-US Kurdish forces here signalled a new front against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) could soon be opened.
A US general in Salahaddin, meanwhile, announced the formation of a military and humanitarian liaison centre for northern Iraq and southeast Turkey, as part of an apparent bid to avoid any Kurdish-Turkish conflict in case of a Turkish deployment in Iraqi Kurdistan.
A resident inside Kirkuk contacted by telephone reported "many dead and injured" after a morning of intense air strikes on Iraqi army positions guarding the perimeter of the city.
US jets also hit a frontline ridge overlooking Kurdish rebel-held Chamchamal, 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Kirkuk, with six massive blasts hitting dug-in troops during a mid-morning raid.
US or British warplanes the same day bombed Iraqi positions near Pir Daud to the northwest, 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Kirkuk and just inside territory under Baghdad's control, Kurdish security officials said.
The attack sent up eight plumes of smoke on hillsides, they said.
Meanwhile, more US special forces were flown into this eastern part of the Kurdish zone run by the rebel Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), with witnesses saying at least one planeload of troops and several helicopters were flown in Sunday night.
"Kirkuk is now under heavy attack. We are on full alert," said senior PUK military official Rostam Hamid Rahim in Chamchamal. "Some positions on the frontlines were also hit and the road between here and Kirkuk as well."
But he said his forces in this almost deserted town, situated less than 1,500 metres (yards) from some of the Iraqi lines hit, had no intention of attacking given that the opposing troops had yet to show any sign of giving up.
The force of the blasts blew out some windows here and, amid the huge plumes of black smoke thrown up on the ridge, Iraqi troops could be seen dashing from bunker to bunker.
There was only a brief barrage of anti-aircraft fire in response to the surprise attack, the first on frontlines here since war began. Throughout the afternoon there was sporadic mortar fire from Iraqi positions.
Normally home to some 10,000 people, Chamchamal has been reduced to a ghost town by a mass exodus of residents. Virtually the only people still here were armed men guarding their homes and PUK peshmerga militiamen.
A Kirkuk resident contacted by telephone said the long morning air raid, the third on the city since war broke out last Thursday, was "unrelenting".
"Nobody is on the streets. There are many dead and injured in the hospital -- mostly soldiers but some civilians. A lot of the bombs are landing around the city, but it's terrifying," said the source, who can not be identified.
Massive booms from the direction of Kirkuk could still be heard several hours later.
The US also appeared to be building up its troop presence in the area, with more aircraft landing discreetly at a small runway near the PUK's administrative centre of Sulaymaniya Sunday night.
Residents living near the Bakrajo airfield, which was sealed off during the night, said at least one plane full of troops and up to 11 helicopters were seen touching down under cover of darkness.
In Baghdad, Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said Iraqi troops had foiled an attempted British and US landing near Kirkuk late Sunday, saying the attacking forces had fled.
The US and PUK troops are also jointly fighting a hardline Islamist group, Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam), who are dug into an area between the town of Halabja and the Iranian border south of Sulaymaniya.
Ansar, a Taliban-style militia blamed for a series of suicide attacks against the PUK, is alleged to have links both to Baghdad and al-Qaeda.
More strikes on Ansar were reported overnight, but the area around Halabja has been closed to the press after an Australian television cameraman was killed there on Saturday in an apparent reprisal suicide bombing.
With sources confirming that many of the US troops had been sent to Halabja, PUK officials said they hoped to finish off the group before turning their attention to government-held Kirkuk.
The number of US troops able to deploy here has been seriously limited by Turkey's refusal to allow the US military to use its territory to transit to northern Iraq.
US General Pete Osman, meanwhile, told reporters that a Military Coordination and Liaison Command (MCLC) was set up "to conduct liaison and coordination with military and humanitarian assistance organisations operating in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq".
"The primary function of the MCLC is to synchronise humanitarian support operations, assist in the deconfliction (sic) of military and humanitarian activities, and coordinate relief into northern Iraq," according to a statement issued after the announcement by Osman, who is to command the centre.
"US and coalition partners support a secure, stable and viable Iraq which includes the preservation of its current borders," it said in a clear reference to Turkish plans -- despite Iraqi Kurdish opposition -- to send troops into northern Iraq.
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