Thousands of Peshmerga Kurdish guerrillas have overrun the main headquarters of a group of Islamic radicals in the mountains of north-eastern Iraq.
The Ansar al-Islam base at Biara fell several hours after the Peshmerga forces launched an offensive at dawn on Friday.
A senior official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Peshmerga guerrilla group which carried out the operation in conjunction with US special forces, said that around 70 Ansar al-Islam adherents had been killed and that all their main centres had been overrun.
He said the survivors had fled into the mountains towards the border with Iran and he predicted that the area would be completely clear of them within 24 hours.
The operation also included American air support called in by the special forces who have been co-ordinating on the ground.
Both the Kurds and the Americans accuse the Ansar al-Islam of having links with terrorism and Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Iran's unease
After nearly a week of preparatory American air and missile strikes on Ansar positions, the battle to dislodge the Islamic faction got under way in earnest at first light on Friday.
More than 5,000 Peshmerga guerrillas had been mobilised for the campaign.
 |
They began pushing from the west along several axes towards the mountain strongholds held by the Ansar.
American special forces were meanwhile on strategic hilltop locations providing some mortar and artillery fire and calling in air strikes from jets which were circulating almost constantly over the rugged mountains.
As the battle continued, loud explosions echoed through the area and plumes of black smoke rose into the sky.
This fight took place in the harshest terrain, with the rugged peaks which mark the border with Iran still mantled with snow.
Iran is known to be deeply unhappy about US forces conducting operations so close to its border.
But for the Americans, tackling a group which they regard as terrorists is something of an article of faith as that was one of the reasons given for their intervention in Iraq.
Neither they nor the Kurdish Peshmerga forces want the group to be left active behind their backs when they turn their attention to the Iraqi front lines to the south.
