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| Iraq |
| Battle in Northern Iraq between Iraqis and Iraqi defectors |
| 2003-03-23 |
| Report from veteran BBC war correspondent John Simpson, the 'liberator of Kabul'. A fierce battle has been raging along the frontline in northern Iraq between Iraqi troops and would-be Iraqi defectors. Watching the battle from a nearby hilltop, it looked as though the Iraqis were firing at the Kurdish troops and their American special forces advisors, whom we know to be close to the Iraqi positions. I could hear mortars and heavy machine guns, and there was even the red tracer of anti-aircraft guns which seemed to be being used as artillery pieces. Every now and then, brilliant white flares were fired into the air. When we went to a Kurdish forward post though, we discovered a very different story. The commander insisted that the Kurdish side and their American allies hadn't come under attack and hadn't fired a shot. Instead, he told us, a large group of Iraqi soldiers had tried to defect to the Kurdish side and had been spotted as they headed across to the Kurdish line. The loyal Iraqi soldiers opened fire and the battle which we saw resulted. |
| Posted by:A |