Kurdish-US forces 'seize strategic hill'

US special forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters seized a strategic hilltop near the major Baghdad-held city of Mosul in northern Iraq early today, a senior Kurdish leader said.

The area called Maqloub, 10 miles north-east of Mosul and heavily defended by Iraqi forces, was a hub for air defences against Allied air strikes as well as a munitions centre, said Hoshyar Zebari, a leading member of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party.

“From our perspective it was the most important gain so far,” Zebari said. “This shows the crumbling of the northern front.”

Control of this hilltop means no Iraqi defences remain between Kurdish-US forces and the centre of Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, he said.

Kurdish control of the area will also allow passage for people wishing to escape Mosul, and could be a prelude to coalition forces entering the city on the ground, he said.

But Zebari stressed there would be no unilateral Kurdish move, saying the operation was being co-ordinated with the Pentagon

Coalition air strikes preceded the early morning ground assault, and there was not much resistance, he said. This suggested “the demoralising situation of the Iraqi army,” he said.

Zebari had no information about casualties or prisoners.