| Kurdish forces have started massing troops near the southern edge of their autonomous region in striking distance of the oil-rich city of Khaneqin, while in the north, U.S. warplanes hit Iraqi positions near the commercial center of Mosul. Kurdish troop strength along their southern front line has risen from less than 400 several weeks ago to between 1,500 and 1,800 now. Mola Bakhtiyar, a Kurdish political and military leader, said it would rise to about 3,000 within days. At certain points the shifting frontier between their autonomous region and the territory controlled by President Saddam Hussein, Kurdish forces have reached to within 3 miles of Khaneqin, said Bakhtiyar. In addition to Kurdish peshmerga militiamen heading south to the front, vehicles carrying U.S. Special Forces troops have been seen headed the same way. |