Kurdish Fighters May Add Muscle to Baghdad
OffensiveBAGHDAD (Reuters) -Feb 9,
2007- 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.
By Mussab Al-Khairalla
