U.S. beefs up northern Iraqi front against Saddam

Reuters | 3/27/03 | Sebastian Alison

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U.S. beefs up northern Iraqi front against Saddam

By Sebastian Alison

HARIR, Iraq, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S troops digging in near northern Iraq's Harir airstrip on Thursday morning were just the most visible sign of a push to establish a northern front in the war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

U.S. activity was building up elsewhere in the region as Washington reported that 1,000 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade had landed overnight in northern Iraq.

Reuters correspondent Jon Hemming saw a U.S. warplane drop eight bombs over Domiz, a small town or military installation north of Mosul under Baghdad's control and close to the front line with Kurdish-ruled northern Iraq.

At Kalak, another front-line village, a powerful explosion was heard at around 7 a.m. (0400 GMT), while from Arbil, the largest city in the Kurdish zone around 30 km (20 miles) from Kalak, a constant stream of aircraft was heard overnight.

Heavy bombing was also reported on the road to the Baghdad-controlled northern oil capital of Kirkuk.

At Harir on Thursday, a Reuters team saw around 100 U.S. paratroopers, but Kurdish militia prevented the reporters from getting too close.

One soldier standing near the main road running past the airstrip told Reuters they had landed overnight, but when pressed for more information he just called out: "I gotta go."

The troops were fanning out in fields around the landing strip and digging in, apparently taking up positions to secure the runway. Two transport helicopters were on the tarmac.

Harir is around 70 km (45 miles) north east of Arbil, at an altitude of approximately 1,500 metres (4,900 ft).

The Kurdish-ruled zone occupies the three northernmost Iraqi provinces of Dohuk, Arbil and Sulaimaniya. It has been self-ruled since 1991, under the protection of a U.S. and British-patrolled no-fly zone, following a failed Kurdish uprising against Saddam's rule at the end of the Gulf War.

SECOND FRONT NEEDS TIME

Analysts said the U.S. deployment in northern Iraq would help stabilise the Kurdish region and could be used as a launch pad to take Iraq's northern oilfields. But they said it would take time to build up a decisive force in the north.

"I can't imagine there will be an effective northern front before the middle to end of next week," said Frank Umbach, security and defence analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations.

A British defence source said the priority for the U.S. forces in the north was to shore up Kurdish lines rather than launch an attack on Baghdad.

U.S. military planners had originally hoped to send some 60,000 U.S. troops into northern Iraq from Turkey, giving them an option to launch a pincer movement on Baghdad. But the Turkish parliament rejected the plan.

The strategy was further complicated by Turkey's insistence that it send its own troops into northern Iraq, ostensibly to prevent a flood of refugees heading to Turkey and to protect the region's Turkmen minority, ethnically close to Turks.

Iraqi Kurds are suspicious of Turkey and have vowed to fight any Turkish incursion, which they say would amount to military occupation. Turkey has a large Kurdish minority of its own and fears that Iraqi Kurds want to set up a sovereign Kurdish state.

On Wednesday, Turkey's top general said Turkey would cooperate closely with the United States over any military action in the north, apparently heeding U.S. statements that a Turkish incursion would damage U.S. interests.

The United States has already established a Military Coordination and Liaison Command in northern Iraq, led by Major General Pete Osman, who arrived in Iraq on Sunday.

He said that his role was primarily humanitarian -- an apparent notice to Turkey that the United States was fully able to cope with refugee and other issues alone.

But the arrival of 1,000 paratroopers overnight with the stated aim of opening a northern front is likely to give the U.S. more than just a humanitarian role.

03/27/03 07:44 ET