Free Republic

MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - At least 17 Kurdish militiamen were killed in a suicide car bombing in the northern city of Mosul, exacerbating fears that a riding tide of violence could derail Iraq's January elections. The attack came hours after a double car bombing in Baghdad killed at least four policemen and wounded 49 others and as 13 other Iraqis were reported killed in a wave of attacks across the country. The PUK chief in Mosul, Saad Pira, told AFP 17 peshmergas were killed and more than 40 wounded when a suicide car bomber rammed their convoy at around 4:30...

<p>In what might be called a tragic irony, Wajeeh Barzani, a son of the late Kurdish leader Mula Mustafa Barzani, was critically injured in a friendly fire incident in northern Iraq April 6. It is tragic, because as he and his Kurdish peshmergas — "those who face death" — were advising U.S. special forces about Iraqi targets in the moments before the attack, the foreign ministers of Iran and Turkey were meeting in Ankara to conspire against his people — the long-suffering Kurds of Iraq.</p>

AMERICAN forces won a decisive victory during their first clash with Saddam’s Republican Guard yesterday, killing scores of the elite troops and wiping out a column of Iraqi armour. The 101st Airborne Division - nicknamed the "Screaming Eagles" - launched a devastating strike against Republican Guard tank units near the Iraqi holy city of Najaf. At least 50 Iraqi soldiers from Saddam’s ultra-loyal Medina Division were killed during the attack by Apache helicopter gunships, which destroyed 25 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and trucks. No US casualties were reported from enemy fire, although one pilot was injured in a "hard landing"...