| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Saddam’s army retreats to Mosul with heavy losses |
| 2003-04-03 |
| The Iraqi army's northern front began to collapse yesterday as troops pulled back in confusion to the city of Mosul after suffering heavy losses from US air strikes and fighting with Kurdish militia. Sarbast Babiri, a Kurdish commander, smiled triumphantly as his men, many wearing captured Iraqi helmets, milled around him. "The Iraqi army has withdrawn to positions nine kilometres north of Mosul. They left behind heavy machine-guns, rocket launchers, food and many dead bodies," he said. Doesn't sound like an orderly retreat, does it? The crumbling of the northern front, quiescent since the start of the war, is a serious blow to Saddam Hussein, because he will face attacks from the north as well as the south. It may, however, increase the possibility of a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq which Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, tried to head off yesterday. Mr Powell, in Ankara for a one-day visit, said he was addressing Turkish concerns over "the extension of control out of Kurdish areas towards the south". As he spoke there were signs that Kurdish peshmerga (soldiers) were doing just that. But, conscious of the danger from Turkey, they portrayed their advance as unplanned, saying it was the result of a mistake by the Iraqis. "Honest, they kept back-pedaling." The Iraqi front line in northern Iraq was, until yesterday, 60km north of Mosul. It ran along the top of steep green hills, crowned with sandbagged bunkers, just outside the Kurdish village of Bardarash. Commander Babiri said the Iraqi army had been relieving one of its units with another – a standard tactic apparently designed to prevent desertions and to limit the time its troops spend under air attack in their exposed hill-top positions. "The soldiers in the newly arrived unit did not know where our peshmerga front line was," he said. "They started firing at our men and we shot back." At this point a US Special Forces detachment with the peshmerga called in air strikes on the Iraqi troops. "The Americans were with us and they were co-ordinating the plane attacks," Commander Babiri said. Over the past month US special forces have been secretly operating with peshmerga units. Villagers in the Kurdish settlement of Kanilan, previously under Iraqi army control, confirmed that the Iraqi regiment stationed at Mandan bridge, a concrete structure spanning a small stream nearby, had suffered heavy casualties. Hoshyar Ahmed, a villager, said: "We saw the American aircraft bomb them. Their vehicles brought away many dead and wounded. They SOP for the Iraqi army -- pull back and leave the bridge as a gift. Commander Babiri was wary of saying anything that might foster Turkish suspicions that the Kurds were deliberately moving into Mosul province. "We did not leave our positions during the fighting," he said, although it was difficult to see, if this were true, as he and his men were now six miles down the road towards Mosul. He added: "We will only go as far as there are Kurdish lands," referring to the Kurdish territories from which they were driven over the last 30 years by the Iraqi government's systematic ethnic cleansing. The peshmerga suffered only five dead while villagers said that as many as 200 Iraqi soldiers were killed or wounded by the air strikes. This underlines the fact that the Iraqi army in open country cannot withstand even lightly armed Kurdish infantry supported by US air power. The Iraqi army couldn't withstand my daughter's girl scout troop supported by US air power. In reality, the peshmerga do not have to advance into Kirkuk or Mosul. Once the Iraqi army retreats or breaks up, about 300,000 Kurdish refugees from the two provinces – many of them armed – have said they intend to return home as soon as possible. And it is becoming increasingly difficult for Turkey to invade because of the growing number of US troops in northern Iraq. No wonder Murat hasn't been posting; he's in his cups over this one. US aircraft repeatedly raided the Iraqi front line in Mosul and Kirkuk provinces over the past week. High over Mosul yesterday were the vapour trails of B-52 bombers, and plumes of smoke rose from the general direction of the city. On the ridge opposite the town of Kalakh, south-east of Mosul – probably the most-filmed military position in Iraq because many television companies have rented houses in the town – Iraqi soldiers were still visible yesterday, moving about around their frequently bombed bunkers. Yet the soldiers appear to be under orders not to do anything to ignite the northern front by opening fire, even under provocation. One of the main roads linking the Kurdish capital Arbil with the western city of Dohuk goes through Kalakh across a bridge over the Zaab river and then runs along one of the banks of the river, overlooked by an Iraqi machine-gun post on a hill 100 yards away. Although the Kurdish leaders say they are now part of the US-led coalition, the Iraqi gunners have never opened fire on the road. Yesterday, cars were passing there freely. But with the Iraqi army retreat from Bardarash back to Kirkuk, the forces in Kalakh are vulnerable to being cut off from the rear. It is difficult to see how they can stay in their present positions. There is also an increased flow of deserters, trying to avoid the relentless bombardment, to the Kurds. Two days, tops, and both Mosul and Kirkuk fall. Hope we have enough troops in place by then to ensure the Turks don't do anything stupid. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #10 Amen to Murat's silence and Amen (in a better mind) to you bodyguard |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-03 18:29:17 |
| #9 Hello, Bodyguard. Glad you're safe. Outstanding work by everyone over there. Hope you'll be home sooner then you thought. But it ain't over yet, so be careful. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-04-03 23:43:08 |
| #8 Good. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-04-03 13:18:55 |
| #7 Murat seems awfully quiet these days. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2003-04-03 11:24:42 |
| #6 Give our love and regards to everyone there, Bodyguard! |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-04-03 10:29:58 |
| #5 Greetns' Fellow Earthlings! Re. Bridgeheads, The only one(s) that got blown were done by us. WMD won't do much to us, just piss us off. It will be a tragedy for his own people though, they don't have JSLIST suits, NAAK injectors, etc. Depending on the Downwind Plume Models and the amount of agent sent forth before counter-battery takes them out, Chem agents could effectively cause large areas to become civilian killing fields. I pray for the people of Iraq, their peader is that nuts. BTW, God bless you guys for your support back in the U.S. |
| Posted by: Bodyguard 2003-04-03 10:19:25 |
| #4 This is all very good news but there are still two big uglies left: block-to-block fighting in Baghdad and the WMD attack which has not yet materialized. We really don't have time for a siege so that leaves some sort of assault. Still, with any luck, the 4th ID folks may be reduced to grousing about how no one left anything for them. |
| Posted by: Hiryu 2003-04-03 09:43:07 |
| #3 Have the Iraqis blown one bridge during this thing? Sounds like they were all rigged, but nobody hit the plunger. If it's me, I blow up every bridge in Iraq to slow us down. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-04-03 09:06:30 |
| #2 the discouraging news for Iraqi forces may keep them from demo'ing the oil fields too - good news for the rest |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-03 08:37:31 |
| #1 I'm wary of making any predictions about how long things will take. Maybe it's a couple days, maybe a week or two. In any case, the last couple of days in this war have been extremely encouraging. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2003-04-03 04:56:26 |