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| Iraq |
| U.S., Kurdish Troops Close in on Mosul |
| 2003-04-09 |
| Edited for length: U.S. and Kurdish forces dislodged Iraqis from a mountain used to defend the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday, their biggest victory yet in the war in northern Iraq. "That area was heavily defended by Iraqis throughout the campaign. From our perspective this is the most important gain of the northern front so far," said Hoshiyar Zebari, political adviser to Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani. Zebari said U.S. forces, allied with local Kurdish fighters, took the Maqloub mountain, some nine miles northeast of Mosul, in the early hours of Wednesday. "We were surprised by the lack of resistance," Zebari added. Asked if there was any likely Iraqi resistance between the mountain and Mosul, Zebari said: "No, basically the city has fallen." Serbest Babiri, local commander of the KDP fighters, also said he thought Mosul would be easy to take. "My expectation is that it will not be difficult as the morale of the Iraqi troops is very low," he told Reuters on top of Mount Maqloub. "This is a very strategic position and as a military man I am very happy to be here," he said, standing near the 1,600-year old Saint Matthew monastery, which belongs to the Syriac Orthodox Christian church based in Damascus. Zebari said he thought the U.S. forces and Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters would now march on Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, some 240 miles north of Baghdad. Zebari said the Iraqis retreated, leaving behind air defense systems, radar and many weapons and other equipment. He added that informal contacts between Iraqi officials in Mosul and Kirkuk and Kurdish leaders were on the increase, and suspected they now saw that President Saddam Hussein's government could not survive long. "They see the demise of the regime and we've seen an increase in those contacts," he said. When they get the word from Baghdad, they'll fold. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 Not if anyone is still watching al-Jazeera covering what's going on in Baghdad. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-04-09 09:33:57 |
| #1 The word will have to come from Tikrit, I'd think. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-04-09 09:24:41 |