Celebrations in northern Iraq

By Brian Murphy, Associated Press, 4/9/03

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MAQLOUB, Iraq — U.S. special operations troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters seized a strategic mountaintop in northern Iraq early Wednesday, eliminating a crucial air defense installation near the government-held city of Mosul.

Celebrations broke out in at least two cities in the Kurdish autonomous region, as people took to the streets to celebrate what they believe is the end of President Saddam Hussein's regime. Some honked their horns, others chanted, "George Bush!" "George Bush!"

U.S. aircraft returned to pound Mosul, and special operations forces were "actively engaging" Iraqi forces there and in Saddam's home city of Tikrit, 125 miles to the south, said U.S. Central Command in Qatar.

Coalition aircraft struck the Iraqi base on the craggy 3,000-foot-high peak before Kurdish ground forces moved forward early Wednesday and won control of the air defense system, which had been used against American war planes.

Hoshyar Zebari, a leading member of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party, said the seizure of the installation about 10 miles northeast of Mosul meant no Iraqi defenses remained between Kurdish-U.S. forces and Iraq's third-largest city.

He said there had been little resistance to the ground assault, suggesting "the demoralizing situation of the Iraqi army."

"From our perspective it was the most important gain ... so far," Zebari said. "This shows the crumbling of the northern front."

The mountain rises steeply from the plain where Mosul sits. An Assyrian Orthodox monastery dating from the 4th Century is built into the rock.

Small buildings reduced to rubble and twisted wreckage of what was an important Iraqi radar and communications hub showed the effectiveness of the air strikes.

Dozens of Kurdish soldiers, exhausted from the night's fighting, rested on the ground, cradling their rifles in their arms and using their scarves to protect their faces from a fierce wind.

Kurdish commander Sarbest Barbiri said there were believed to be some Republican Guard remnants and Fedayeen militiamen defending Mosul, but that the regular army was defeated or had given up.

"This was the place where Saddam's forces looked down on Mosul. Now we are looking down on what's left of Saddam's army," said Barbiri.

Zebari said control of the peak will allow passage for people wishing to escape the embattled city, which has been repeatedly targeted in coalition air strikes.

He stressed that there would be no unilateral Kurdish move, saying the operation was being coordinated with the Pentagon.

Kurdish forces have also tightened their ring around the key oil center of Kirkuk, and were within sight of the city Tuesday following heavy coalition airstrikes on front-line Iraqi positions.

Control over the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk and the oil fields between them is the main objective of the northern campaign to topple Saddam. Kurds consider both cities part of their historical ethnic territory.

In spontaneous demonstrations of joy, people in the Kurdish city of Irbil ran into the streets, and drivers and bicyclists beeped their horns. The cars flew flags and scarves in yellow, the color of the governing Kurdistan Democratic Party in the western sector of the Kurdish autonomous zone.

A group of young boys held aloft an American flag with a picture of Sylvester Stallone emblazoned on the middle. A man riding in the back of a pickup truck flashed a V for victory sign as he passed. Kurdish fighters, piled onto a city police truck, waved their weapons in a victory gesture.

In Sulaymaniyah, in the eastern part of the Kurdish autonomous region, hundreds of people, most of them young, celebrated outside the hotel where most foreign journalists stay.

They swarmed around a square near the hotel, chanting "George Bush!" "George Bush!"

They said Saddam had already fallen, and waved American flags, Kurdish flags and Iraqi flags.

"Now that Saddam is going, there's no more difference between Iraqis and Kurds," said Bakir Mohamad, a 19-year-old agriculture student.

A little girl wearing the bright red and yellow traditional Kurdish dress stood up in the sunroof of her parents' car, waving a napkin.

When U.S. special operations troops drove past the demonstration, people cheered and others reached into their car and hugged and kissed them.

The U.S. military said British and U.S. aircraft struck targets in Tikrit on Wednesday, and that American troops tried to block the roads from the capital to the city, which remains Saddam's power base, to prevent Iraqi leaders from fleeing there.

"We certainly are focused on Tikrit," Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks told reporters at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Qatar.

He said U.S. forces expect resistance from a mix of Republican Guards and militia fighters in Mosul and Kirkuk, and that special operations troops and Kurdish soldiers seized a small town north of Mosul and captured 200 fighters. He did not name that town or another Iraqi position 20 miles south of Irbil where he said special operations forces and aircraft destroyed tanks and cargo trucks.

Coalition warplanes have repeatedly bombed targets in northern Iraq, but the advance of ground forces has been slow, in part because of sticky regional politics. The arrival of U.S. forces in Baghdad, however, may signal a more aggressive northern campaign. The estimated 70,000 Kurdish fighters in the region have insisted they are ready any time.