Kurdish Fighters Move Toward Key Oil City

AP | 3/31/03 | BRIAN MURPHY

[kattracks]

Kurdish Fighters Move Toward Key Oil City

By BRIAN MURPHY .c The Associated Press

TAQTAQ, Iraq (AP) - Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq have taken control of more territory from withdrawing Iraqi forces, moving closer to the major oil center of Kirkuk.

The nearly 10-mile advance Sunday by the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia was unchallenged but slowed by dense minefields left by Saddam Hussein's troops, said Ares Abdullah, a Kurdish commander.

It was the third significant shift since Thursday in the front line separating Iraqi forces from the U.S.-backed Kurds. Each Iraqi move has allowed the Kurds to move closer to Kirkuk, the nation's No. 2 oil-producing region. The Kurds consider it an essential part of their ethnic lands.

In the hill country south of Taqtaq - about 35 miles southeast of the Kurdish administrative capital of Irbil - Kurdish forces can clearly see the glow of Kirkuk and its oil fields about 15 miles away.

``Our goal is now closer,'' Abdullah said.

Elsewhere in the Kurdish north, Kurdish guerrillas working with U.S. special forces attacked extremists belonging to Ansar al-Islam, a militant group allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

The attack Friday left 120 to 150 militants dead and dealt ``a very serious blow'' to terrorism, said Barham Salih, prime minister of the Sulaymaniyah-based Kurdish government that is a U.S. ally. He said 17 Kurds were killed.

``It was a very tough battle,'' Salih said. ``You're talking about a bunch of terrorists who are very well-trained and well-equipped.''

The two main northern cities under Baghdad rule - Kirkuk and Mosul - have come under relentless attack from U.S. warplanes. New explosions were reported Monday in Mosul from the Arabic television station al-Jazeera.

The reason for the Iraqi repositioning is unclear. But Kurdish commanders believe Iraqi troops have been seriously battered and need reinforcements.

Iraqi forces could also be rearranging their units, since the United States apparently does not yet have enough strength in the Western-protected Kurdish zone for a ground assault. Plans for a northern offensive were crippled after Turkey refused to allow U.S. troops to use its territory for an invasion across the border.

The Kurdish advance in the Taqtaq region came less than 24 hours after its forces fell back along another front: conceding more than 12 miles along the main road from Irbil to Kirkuk. Iraqi gunners have now dug in just outside Altun Kupri - also known as Perdeh - about 27 miles from Kirkuk.

``We cannot move against them unless American planes bomb the positions,'' said Farhad Yunus Ahmad, leader of a front-line Kurdish unit near Altun Kupri.

Kurdish fighters spent Sunday clearing mines and poking through abandoned Iraqi posts. They carried away war souvenirs and anything with possible value: electrical cables, helmets, vintage gas masks, casing from anti-aircraft artillery.

The Iraqi outposts seemed little more than rough camps. Small cinderblock and mud shelters dotted a clearing - probably a muddy quagmire in rain and a dustbowl in the heat. Roofs were apparently tarps, removed in the withdrawal. Dozens of positions were dug out for tanks or other vehicles.

Down the road, a team of Kurdish sappers pulled up about one mine every minute. In just five hours of work, they cleared more than 230 anti-personnel mines and 77 anti-tank mines, said the team leader, Abdullah Hamza Salim.

The light olive anti-tank mines are as big as a layer cake. The smaller mines are black and about the size of an ashtray.

The team worked with no protective gear and used sticks to pry up the mines. At least two sappers have been injured since Saturday. Salim said they had received some mine-clearance training but wondered why U.S. experts have not offered help.

``We would welcome the Americans, but they do not come,'' he said. ``We face this danger alone.''

Three airstrike teams of six to eight combat aircraft each were launched late Saturday against northern Iraq from the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Eastern Mediterranean late Saturday, according to Lt. John Oliveira. He said Iraqi bunkers, artillery and surface-to-air missile sites and some Iraqi troops were hit with laser- and satellite-guided munitions.

The Kurds established an autonomous region in northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, beyond the control of the Baghdad government and protected by U.S.-British air patrols. But Islamic militants control pockets of territory.

The United States sent more than 1,200 paratroopers into northern Iraq last week and has begun coordinating military activities with the Kurds.

03/31/03 02:16 EST

[Davea]

Boy this "pause" this "quagmire" is really slowing things down. /sarcasm