"...KANILAN, Iraq - A U.S. airborne brigade in northern Iraq is preparing to move south toward a ridge of hills northeast of Baghdad, backed by U.S. air power, special operations forces and tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas, according to U.S. and opposition officials.
Some of the 173rd Airborne Brigade's combat forces left their base in the north Wednesday on armed patrols to probe for Iraqi forces in the direction of the oil-rich northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. Another battalion was expected to do the same soon.
But the officials said the withdrawal of Iraqi Republican Guard divisions that had been guarding Mosul and Kirkuk appeared to have opened the way for a U.S.-led force to move toward Baghdad, rather than concentrate on securing Kirkuk, Mosul and the oil fields as originally planned.
"We soon will be closing in on Baghdad from all directions, including the north," a senior administration official in Washington said..."