You have commented 375 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Iraq
Kurdish leaders step up war of words with Turkey
2003-03-23
Kurdish leaders yesterday accused Turkey of delaying the long-awaited northern offensive by US forces to topple Saddam Hussein. "The Americans are so frustrated with the Turks it is unbelievable," said Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurdish leader, yesterday after talks with American and Turkish officials in Ankara.
To the contrary, it's very believable.
In one incident the US was particularly angered when its strike aircraft were unable to give prompt support to a combined unit of US special forces and peshmerga (Kurdish soldiers) involved in a firefight with the Iraqi army, according to sources in Washington.
That just about does it.
Turkey has refused to bow to demands from the US, Britain and Germany that it not invade Iraq in an effort to reduce the influence of the Iraqi Kurds in any post-Saddam settlement. The Kurds have now put their forces under the command of the US-led coalition in an effort to make themselves a more valuable partner of the US than Turkey in the war. They have also made available four airstrips for US forces to enter Iraqi Kurdistan as a base from which to advance on the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk. The Kurdish forces would like to paint themselves as full military allies of the US, especially as they have a somewhat different agenda, including the return of 300,000 Kurdish refugees to Kirkuk and Mosul provinces.
That's not very hard at this point...
The explosion of bombs or missiles illuminated the night sky over Mosul and Kirkuk where the First and Fifth Iraqi Army Corps, each with five divisions, are dug in. The Khalid military camp, one of the largest in Iraq, and the secret police headquarters in Kirkuk were hit, according to Mr Zebari.
Those would be likely targets — but we all know they were really aiming at women and children and puppies and kittens and baby ducks...
The US has abandoned its plans for an American military government of Iraq after the expected fall of President Saddam, said Mr Zebari after talks with US officials. Instead there would be an Iraqi interim authority which would include the Iraqi opposition and others not connected with the present government.
This is big news if true.
American military assets on the ground in northern Iraq are not large. There are peshmerga units combined with a small number of US special forces. The US could also fly in airborne brigades, but could not mount anything like the heavy armoured attack being made on the Iraqi army in the south of the country. If it did rely heavily on the Kurds then this might precipitate the Turkish intervention which the US has been trying to avoid.
Having the 4th infantry division there would be really nice right about now.
Mr Zebari said there had been one skirmish in which a US/peshmerga unit had called in an air strike that killed three Iraqi soldiers. He hinted that a general attack might occur in two or three days, but the frontline remained quiet yesterday.
Posted by:Steve White

#4  comments); ?>werwer
Posted by: liberalhawk   2003-03-24 08:47:44  

#3  comments); ?>werwer
Posted by: becky   2003-03-23 11:19:09  

#2  comments); ?>werwer
Posted by: becky   2003-03-23 04:24:10  

#1  comments); ?>werwer
Posted by: Anonymous   2003-03-23 02:37:42  

00:00