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Kurdish battalion moves toward Iraqi
Baghdad
16.1.2007 |
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January 16, 2007
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan Region (Iraq), -- A
predominantly Kurdish battalion based in this
northern city has started the march toward Baghdad,
its commander said, as the Iraqi military gears up
for a major security operation aimed at pacifying
the capital.
Hundreds of soldiers boarded dozens of jeeps,
Humvees and trucks on Monday to begin the trip to
Baghdad, 160 miles away.
Members of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 4th
Division will undergo more specialized military
training before being deployed in the capital, said
Brig. Gen. Anwar Golani, the brigade's commander. He
said the training will be conducted at a base in
western Baghdad under the supervision of U.S.
troops.
The Iraqi government has not announced a start date
for the new security operation announced by Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Jan. 6. President Bush
followed by pledging to send 21,500 more U.S. troops
to Iraq, most to the Baghdad area, as part of his
new war strategy.
Thousands of Iraqi and U.S. troops are expected to
do neighborhood-to-neighborhood search operations to
clear Baghdad of Sunni Muslim insurgents and local
militias such as the Mahdi Army of radical Shiite
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Mahdi Army has been
blamed for much of the sectarian killings in the
past months.
Another Kurdish brigade is undergoing intensive
urban combat training near the Kurdistani city of
Erbil in preparation to move to Baghdad.
It will not be the first time that the 1st
Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 4th Division has served in
volatile areas. It also spent seven months helping
to fight Sunni insurgents in the towns of Balad and
Duluiyah, some 45 miles north of Baghdad, Golani
said, adding that 14 of his troops were killed and
55 were wounded while there.
Only the 1st Battalion of the brigade was heading to
Baghdad because two others are needed to protect oil
facilities near the northern Kurdish oil-rich city
of Kirkuk, Golani said. He added that they have
started setting up a 4th Battalion after a request
from the defense ministry.
Golani said many of his soldiers were formerly part
of Kurdish militias known as Peshmergas that fought
Saddam Hussein's regime for decades, making them
experienced fighters. He said they had been
integrated into the Iraqi army.
"We did benefit a lot from our previous experience,"
Golani said. "We have experience in how to repulse
attacks."
Most of the troops are Kurds and don't speak Arabic,
but they were able to overcome that problem in Balad
and Duluiyah by enlisting Arab members and drivers
to help with translation.
One of the soldiers, Heman Ahmed, said his mother
asked him to leave the army rather than go to
Baghdad but he refused, noting that many of his
friends were going and he couldn't desert them.
"I myself would prefer to serve in Kurdistan because
I have experience here and know the region," he
said, wearing a beige military uniform, sunglasses
and a Kurdish turban. "I am worried about going to
Baghdad, but in the end we are soldiers and we have
to abide by orders."
Golani acknowledged that some soldiers had expressed
reservations about going to an unfamiliar area, but
he said the mission was an important one.
"Our aim is to stop the bloodshed between the Sunnis
and Shiites in addition to protecting civilians who
are suffering as a result of that," he said.
AP
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