- CHAMCHAMAL, Iraq (Reuters)
- Warplanes pounded forward Iraqi positions in the north of the country
on Wednesday as U.S. efforts to open a second, limited front against President
Saddam Hussein's forces gathered pace.
-
- Five large explosions threw up plumes of black smoke
on the hilltops overlooking Chamchamal, a town in the Kurd-controlled Iraqi
enclave wrested from Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf War.
-
- Local Kurds, bitter enemies of Saddam's government, cheered
after each explosion. Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters looked on
from a high point in the town.
-
- But a Kurdish commander controlling the area around Chamchamal,
which lies 35 km (22 miles) east of the key oil city of Kirkuk which Saddam
controls, said the Americans needed to do more to rout the Iraqi forces
effectively.
-
- "I don't like this kind of attack," Mam Rostam
told Reuters in Chamchamal minutes after the bombing ended. "It needs
to be much heavier if they want to bring a swift end to this war."
In Kalak, some 25 miles east of the city of Mosul, a Reuters television
correspondent saw four large explosions strike Iraqi government lines on
a hilltop.
-
- "These are the first daytime raids we have seen
so close to Kalak," said Soheil Afdjei, adding that four thick columns
of smoke rose above the target area.
-
- A single jet could be heard flying in cloud overhead.
-
- Reuters correspondent Jon Hemming said Mosul had also
come under attack, with five explosions being heard from the city.
-
- "There's a big column of black smoke rising into
the sky," he said, adding that there was no sign of anti-aircraft
fire.
-
- The increased presence of U.S. forces in the Kurdish
zone, and escalating bombardment of frontlines and the nearby cities of
Kirkuk and Mosul, appear to be part of attempts by the United States to
open a second front against Saddam.
-
- But, after Turkey's parliament blocked permission for
over 60,000 U.S. troops to enter northern Iraq, it is unclear how much
of a threat they can pose Saddam's forces in the north.
-
- Rostam said he knew of no plans for "peshmergas"
to cross the frontline and launch an offensive from his area.
-
- SOLDIERS RUN AWAY
-
- He said Iraqi soldiers dug in on hilltops just three
to four km (2 to 3 miles) away appeared to have run away. He added there
had been a total of seven attacks since Tuesday night, hitting hilltops
bunkers and positions nine miles west at Qarahanjir.
-
- Warplanes also flew over the nearby city of Sulaimaniya
early on Wednesday, apparently on their way to hit areas near the Iranian
border held by the radical Ansar al-Islam group which Washington accuses
of having links with al Qaeda.
-
- "I think the attacks were heavier around there last
night," Rostam said of the Ansar raids. "That operation could
well be finished in the next few days."
-
- Kurdish officials have said recent bombing sorties inflicted
heavy losses on Ansar, a group said to number several hundred fighters
active in mountains near the town of Halabja.
-
- But there has been no independent confirmation of claims
of up to 60 Ansar killed.
-
- The group is blamed for a string of attacks on Kurdish
targets and is said to have been behind a suicide bombing at a checkpoint
near Halabja last week that killed several people including an Australian
journalist.
-
- Contact Us
|
