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Iraqi forces began retreating from Erbil to take positions near Kirkuk and Mousel in northern Iraq, affirmed on Friday Kurdish opposition sources in a statement to KUNA. Iraqi forces in Khosh Tabba, 15 km south of Erbil, moved in the direction of oil-rich Kirkuk, said the sources, and other forces in Kalak Yaseen Agha, 20 km west of Erbil, moved to Mousel in Northwestern Iraq. The moves come ahead of expectations that coalition forces will soon enter Kirkuk and Mousel, with the support of the forces of the Kurdish opposition. The opposition sources emphasized the low state of morale of...

CHAMCHAMAL, IRAQ - More than a quarter century ago, when Ali Keykhusraw was a year old, he survived the explosion of a bomb dropped by an Iraqi jet. He grew up to become a Kurdish fighter, a pesh merga, "one who faces death." His stubbly chin and neck still bear the scars of shrapnel. Yesterday Mr. Keykhusraw and other men with guns paced the muddy streets of Chamchamal and waited for war. He showed no fear. The start of the US attack against the regime of President Saddam Hussein "is the time of our salvation," he explains. "We have been...

US letting Kurds in on the fight in lieu of the turks

Due to the fact that US cannot use Turkey bases, the US has asked for Kurd military assistance. This has been determined by military and political necissity.

ANKARA, March 18 (AFP) - Iraqi Kurds have agreed to place their forces under the command of US forces in case of military intervention in northern Iraq, the US special envoy to the Iraqi opposition, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Tuesday. "The Iraqi parties agreed to cooperate fully with the coalition forces if they have to enter Iraq... to put whatever forces they have under the command and control of the coalition commanders," Khalilzad said after talks with Turkish officials and Iraqi Kurdish leaders. He also announced that the United States "in order to guard against possible disorder" would assume responsibility...

Saddam Hussein’s most important Kurdish ally has defected to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq in what officials here say is an indication that the Iraqi president’s internal support is beginning to crumble.Jowhad Herki is chief of the powerful Herki tribe and since the 1960s has supported successive Baghdad regimes in putting down revolts by fellow Kurds. He arrived in northern Iraq via London after travelling there from Baghdad for medical treatment. He is a former member of the Iraqi parliament."This is a major development that shows that they are abandoning the sinking ship," said Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurdish leader in the northern...

Iraqi Kurds living in Britain today delivered a petition protesting over the French anti-war stance. They petitioned the French embassy in central London, citing carried out under Saddam Hussein's regime as justification for war. French leader Jacques Chirac is opposed to war and may use his country's power of veto in the United Nations security council to block a resolution permitting conflict. Azos Rashid, a 20-year-old student and member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, was among those delivering the petition. He said: "Chirac is vetoing the hopes and lives of people in Iraq."I have to say the French embassy...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Kurdish leader predicted Friday the quick collapse of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government if war comes. He said 70,000 Kurds were prepared to fight alongside U.S. troops. Barhim Salih, prime minister of the Kurdistan regional government, said the Iraqi army and even some of Saddam's Republican Guard would quit in what he predicted would be a short war. Salih told reporters at the Council on Foreign Relations, a private research group, that Saddam had booby-trapped Iraqi oil fields in Kirkuk and probably elsewhere and would have them blown up as he sought refuge outside the country....