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Kurd fighters may add muscle to Baghdad
offensive
9.2.2007 |
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BAGHDAD, February 9,-- When U.S. and Iraqi
forces step up an offensive against militants in
Baghdad, 4,000 Kurdish soldiers will be there on the
frontlines, taking part in their first major
operation under Iraq's new army.
Those soldiers, drawn largely from Kurdish Peshmerga
militias in the northern autonomous region of
Kurdistan, will have to navigate a different
language, a largely foreign city and perhaps a
hostile population.
But they will bring with them a reputation for
discipline and in Iraq's bitterly split Shi'ite and
Sunni Arab sectarian divide --could be seen as
neutral, even if some Kurdish soldiers have mixed
feelings about their deployment.
"Their professionalism will guarantee a measure of
success," said Baghdad resident Ahmed Ubaid, a
38-year-old Sunni.
The Baghdad offensive, announced by Shi'ite Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki last month, is seen as a
last-ditch effort to halt Iraq's plunge into all-out
sectarian civil war between politically dominant
Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.
Some U.S. and Iraqi officials say militias and
insurgents have infiltrated the ranks of Iraq's Arab
security forces, sparking questions about their
commitment to battle militants from their own
communities.
Of three small Kurdish brigades totalling 4,000
soldiers being sent to Baghdad, one, the 3rd
Brigade, has arrived. Its commander, General Anwar
Dowlani, said he was awaiting orders.
"We don't know where we will deploy, but it will be
in areas where we will preserve security and
terminate terrorism," Dowlani told Reuters.
The peshmergas -- "those who are ready to die" in
Kurdish -- gained valuable experience in guerrilla
tactics when they fought Saddam Hussein's
nationalist army in the 1970s and 80s.
About a fifth of Iraq's population, most Kurds live
in the northern mountains, which has been a haven
from attacks plaguing other areas of Iraq since the
U.S. invasion in 2003. Long set on independence,
Kurds say they will now be content with sweeping
autonomy secured from Saddam with U.S. help in 1991.
RESENTMENT AND PRIDE
Some Kurdish soldiers assigned to Baghdad had
misgivings about taking part in a battle that could
define Iraq's future.
"I am very resentful. ... I am afraid the Kurds will
be dragged into this sectarian war," said Faris
Fattah, an officer in the 3rd Brigade, speaking in
the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya last month before
deploying to Baghdad.
Another soldier, Lieutenant Ismail Ghattour, said
that while he was afraid of dying in Baghdad, he had
a duty to perform.
"I want to show all those who doubt the loyalty of
the Kurdish people in Iraq," he said.
The Kurdish brigades will join tens of thousands of
American troops and Iraqi Arab soldiers and police
in trying to restore order to Baghdad, where suicide
bombings, mortar attacks and death squads kill
hundreds every week.
Because most speak Kurdish and not Arabic, U.S.
officers say they will operate with translators.
"The problem is they don't know Baghdad as well as
the local units do, so it's going to take a few days
to get their feet on the ground," Colonel Stu
Pollock, senior advisor to the 6th Iraqi Army
Division in Baghdad, told reporters this week.
Herish Habib, a senior Baghdad official from the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main
Kurdish parties, said language would not be a
problem. "Some soldiers know Arabic and can
translate for the rest," Habib said.
The notion of Kurdish military involvement in
Baghdad has previously drawn criticism from Iraq's
Sunni Arabs.
Arabs accuse Kurdish peshmerga militias of driving
them from oil-rich Kirkuk, just outside Kurdistan,
ahead of a local referendum due there in 2007 to
decide the city's identity.
This time, Sunni Arabs, perhaps more worried about
Shi'ite militias, have largely been quiet on the
issue.
Shi'ites on the other hand, have found common ground
with Kurds on some political issues, such as framing
a constitution that Sunni Arabs say is detrimental
to them because it does not provide equal
distribution of Iraq's oil wealth.
Reuters
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