The US military announced its presence in Kurdish-ruled northern Iraq on Monday and Iraqi lines in the area were bombed for the first time, in signs a second, smaller front may be opening in the war on Iraq.
US warplanes pounded hilltops just outside the Kurdish-controlled town of Chamchamal, east of the oil-producing city of Kirkuk, in the first such strikes in the area.
PHOTO: AP
Kurdish officials reported bombing near the city of Mosul and a Western television crew heard a powerful explosion near Arbil. Reporters also heard several blasts coming from the direction of Kirkuk.
Kurds have controlled part of northern Iraq under Western protection since the 1991 Gulf War. Both Kirkuk and Mosul are held by Baghdad, but are near the Kurdish enclave, while Arbil is Kurd-controlled.
In Salahuddin, northeast of Arbil, US Marine Corps Major General Henry Osman, commander of a Military Coordination and Liaison Command (MCLC), said he and his troops had arrived in northern Iraq on Sunday to play a largely humanitarian role.
Late on Sunday, reporters had stumbled across two truckloads of US soldiers on a road near the Bakrajo airstrip outside Sulaimaniya to the east of the Kurdish zone.
Their exact role in the north is unclear. Some have been seen monitoring Kirkuk, Mosul and frontline Iraqi positions, possibly to help guide bombs on to targets.
There is also speculation small teams could try to cross into Iraq soon to secure oilfields and prevent fleeing Iraqi soldiers from setting them ablaze.
One senior Kurdish official said on Sunday that he believed more US troops would be flown into the Kurdish area over the next two weeks to bolster a northern front that would back up the main US and British against Baghdad from the south.
But the small capacity of airstrips in the region could limit the size of any northern force and delay its deployment.
In Baghdad, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said US forces had landed -- apparently by helicopter -- near Kirkuk on Sunday, but had been forced to flee. There was no immediate confirmation from US military officials.
Kurdish groups have said they would be under US command in any offensive against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's troops.
Their involvement may be crucial after Turkey refused to allow over 60,000 US soldiers to pass through Turkey and strike Iraq from the north. It has permitted US overflights.
As activity builds along Saddam's northern front with the Kurdish enclave, there has been no sign so far of incursions by Turkish troops into Iraq.
Washington has been trying hard to discourage such a move, but a US envoy said in Ankara on Monday there had so far been no agreement between the two countries over the issue.
Kurds fear any Turkish deployment could lead to a war within a war in northern Iraq. They disbelieve Turkish statements that it would be purely for humanitarian purposes.
Turkey fears that territorial gains by Kurds during the war on Saddam, and especially control of key centers like Kirkuk and Mosul, could embolden its own restive Kurdish minority.
A US officer involved in the new MCLC, Colonel Keith Lawless, told reporters that one of its functions would be to coordinate between "all the various factions in the north, including the Turks if in fact Turkish forces cross."
Complicating the picture still further has been the presence in northern Iraq of the Ansar al-Islam group of radical Muslims, said by Washington to have links with al-Qaeda.
Kurdish commanders say up to 60 Ansar fighters were killed in US air strikes last week. A commander of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main Kurdish factions, said on Monday his group was gearing up for an attack on Ansar within the next two days.
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