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Iraq
40 Iraqis surrender to Kurdish forces
2003-03-28
More than 40 Iraqi troops surrendered to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq in the past 24 hours. According to the Kurdish Democratic Party the troops surrendered near Iski Kalak, midway between Arbil and Mosul, about 210 miles northwest of Baghdad. The source, a member of Massoud Barzani's KDP, said Peshmerga fighters treated Iraqi soldiers well and transported them to a military position near Arbil. He said the mass surrender came in the wake of heavy airstrikes against Iraqi military positions near Iski Kalak on the Great Zab River. In the meantime, strikes by coalition forces continued Friday morning against Iraqi military positions south of the northern cities of Dahouk, Arbil, Chamchamal and Taktak which remain outside Baghdad's control.

A little more on this area...
Kurdish armed forces have reportedly reinforced positions in Chamchamal and Leylan heights around Kirkuk north of Iraq to assume control of the region following Iraqi army's pullout, said a Kurdish partisan on Friday. Head of Iraqi Kurdistan Socialist Party's Bureau of Central Relations Sheikh Taher Barzanji told IRNA that the military tactic would be depriving Turkey of any pretext for military engagement in the area. Barzanji said Kurdish forces have advanced 10 kms into the oil rich region to fill the gap of Iraqi forces, who had on Thursday withdrew from the region by 15 kms. He refuted any goal for Kurds' presence in Kirkuk other than protection of the city's security, saying, "We do not need to attack Kirkuk for its capture."

And a little more, also from IRNA:
30 more Iraqi soldiers surrender to KDP fighters
Sounds like they're trying to collect the whole set...
Some 30 Iraqi soldiers on Friday surrendered to the fighters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) after US-British planes earlier in the day pounded the positions of Iraqi army in areas bordering Kurdish-held regions. A KDP member told IRNA that the soldiers had surrendered in Kalak village of Tepe Garus, northern Iraq, bringing the number of those captured since Thursday to 57. He said that some 27 Iraqi soldiers had surrendered to the KDP in Akri region on Thursday. This, he stressed, shows that the number of Iraqi deserters in the area now seems to be on the rise. The Iraqi army on Thursday backed off some 25 kilometers southward from its positions in Bani Moqan heights overlooking Chamchamal after heavy US-British bombardments on the area.
Posted by:Steve

#1  "Iraqi Kurdistan Socialist Party's "

I take it their relations with the French Socialists and German Social Dem's are not too tight these days :). Glad to find a socialist party (other than Israeli Labor party and UK Labour Party) that I agree with on this war.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2003-03-28 12:34:06  

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