Kurds seize major oil city

Kurdish fighters entered the strategic oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq today where residents toppled statues of Saddam Hussein and looted government offices.

More than 100 vehicles, from pick-up trucks to a rubbish truck, laden with Kurdish peshmerga fighters drove through Kirkuk’s streets, flying the flags of the two major Kurdish factions who rule the autonomous region: yellow for Kurdistan Democratic Party and green for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

It was unclear whether any Iraqi forces were still in the city. Some shooting was reported on the city’s north-west edge.

A US military official said American special operations forces were attempting to get a US presence into the city “in the interest of regional stability” - an apparent reference to Turkey’s concerns about Kurds taking over the oil city.

In Ankara, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Turkey would send military observers to Kirkuk.

Gul said he consulted with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who offered to let Turkey send the observers to make sure Kurdish fighters withdrew from the city.

“We have reminded the US of their guarantee,” Gul said. “They have said that they are sending new forces within a few hours and that Kurds will be withdrawn.”

“There is no reason for any concerns with these assurances,” he said.

Kurds consider Kirkuk part of their historical ethnic territory but Turkey fears Kurdish moves on Kirkuk, or on the city of Mosul to the north-west, could stoke independence aspirations among Turkey’s own Kurdish population.

US officials in Qatar said there were some organised units of Republican Guard and regular army forces in northern Iraq, with reports of Iraqi reinforcements converging on Tikrit – Saddam’s home town and a stronghold.

Coalition aircraft were hitting the Republican Guard’s Adnan Division there and coalition roadblocks were trying to prevent Iraqi leaders from reaching Tikrit and mounting a last stand, officials said.

In Kirkuk, Kurdish families ran out of their homes to cheer and threw roses as the fighters passed.

People attacked a tile mural of Saddam, throwing mud at it, smashing it with rocks and pieces of cinderblock, and hitting it with their shoes.

In Arafat Square, the bodies of two dead Iraqi soldiers lay near the base of a statue of Saddam torn down by residents with an old fire engine. Some jumped on the fallen statue, firing celebratory machine-gun fire and hitting it with their shoes – a serious insult in the Arab world.

Resident looted and destroyed the headquarters of the ruling Baath Party and carried away air conditioners and equipment from government offices. Along one road, a boy pushed a cart full of office chairs.

The oil facilities were completely intact around town. The flames that burn atop the wells were still blazing, showing that shafts were still pumping in Iraq’s second biggest oil region.

Outside the city, groups of dozens, sometimes hundreds, of Iraqi soldiers in uniform walked on roads without weapons, past clusters of US special forces troops and a large force of Kurdish guerrilla fighters.

Some of the Iraqi troops shouted “Hurray America and Britain!” as they walked some waved at the peshmergas.

Southeast of Kirkuk, on the Iranian border, Kurds swept unopposed into the strategic city of Khaneqin, and joined with US forces to rout Iraqi soldiers at Altun Kupri, 20 miles north of Kirkuk.

Hundreds of Kurdish troops moved through the town of about 100,000 people and were greeted by cheers. Residents said the town had been under an Iraqi dusk to dawn curfew for several days.

Shortly after Iranian TV broadcast images of Baghdad’s fall, people emerged in the streets of Khaneqin and found the soldiers and Baath Party members had disappeared.

Control of Kirkuk is the long-held dream of the Kurds, who were harshly oppressed by Saddam’s regime and established an autonomous zone in northern Iraq in 1991.