Submit your comments on this article | ||||
Iraq | ||||
Pillar of fire waits for US in Kirkuk | ||||
2003-03-09 | ||||
It will start with a pillar of fire. As the air-raid sirens sound over Kirkuk, Iraqi soldiers will rush from their foxholes, bunkers and fortified command centres and throw lit rags into huge pits filled with oil, benzene, petrol and rubber. The pits have been dug along all the major roads surrounding the city and in rings around it. The boiling cloud of thick, poisonous fumes will blind the American and British jets on their bombing runs and make parachute drops almost impossible. Then the Iraqi defenders will sit and wait for the onslaught. "Allright Faisal, you run with the burning rag to the oil trenches and set them ablaze." "And what are you going to do, Abdul?" "I'll cover you." "With what? It's an air raid!" "I'll cover you with a shroud. Now git going!" For the moment there is little movement along the front lines between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the autonomous enclave run by the Kurds in the north. At Kala, near the city of Arbil, exchanges of fire are frequent. But at Chamchamal, 30 miles south of the eastern city of Sulaymaniyah, the lines are quiet. Last week Iraqi
When are these Brit writers ever going to learn that the RG's are not elite? Kurdish officials told The Observer there are hundreds of tanks and artillery pieces massed around the city. In one village alone, Kamanji, there are 25 tanks and 10 anti-aircraft guns, travellers crossing into Kurdistan at Chamchamal said. That's 35 targets. And a B-52 carries how many JDAMS? Ten miles south of Kirkuk lies the huge Khalid bin Waleed base. It is protected by minefields, rows of barbed wire and dozens of machine-gun nests and bunkers. Just beyond the camp is a large airfield where dozens of helicopter gunships and MiG fighter jets are protected by concrete bomb shelters
Corruption at every level. Remind me how the peaceniks think the Iraqis will fight for Saddam? All the Kurds remember how in the spring of 1991 their lightly armed militia were able to seize Kirkuk after the militia, recruited by Saddam from certain Kurdish tribes, swapped sides. But the Kurds were only able to hold the city for 11 days before being routed by tanks and helicopters. Now everything depends on the Americans. 'With American help we can be there in hours,' said Mustafa Chaw Rash, a senior official with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two governing parties in the northern enclave.
Especially if the Turkish army rolls south. | ||||
Posted by:Steve White |
#3 Not mention breathing all that crap. I mean, like that's gotta be bad..... |
Posted by: Michael 2003-03-09 12:27:08 |
#2 What else for Sammy to do? He'll be hoping for more stray bombs too, don't forget, and who knows what he thinks he'll be able to get up to under his cloak of smoke? Sowing confusion's one of the best strategies left open to him. |
Posted by: Bulldog 2003-03-09 11:23:30 |
#1 It's difficult to think of anything more stupid than surrounding yourself with pits of fuel and lighting them off. For every U.S. pilot that is irritated by the smoke there will be 1,000 Iraqis choking on it. Truly natural selection at work. |
Posted by: Tom 2003-03-09 11:12:21 |