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Kurds in first skirmish of Iraq conflict
James Dorsey In Istanbul
THE Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, has fired the first shot in the long-expected battle to resist US-led attempts to unseat him.
Days before announcing a 30-day halt to Iraqi oil exports, an Iraqi-backed radical Islamic group in predominantly Kurdish northern Iraq attempted to assassinate a pro-Western Kurdish leader, a potential US ally in any military action against Iraq.
Kurdish officials said yesterday that Ansar-al-Islam, an Islamist group believed to be linked to Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda, was behind an attempt last week to kill Barham Salih, the pro-Western prime minister of that part of northern Iraq that is governed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The PUK along with its rival, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), governs northern Iraq under the umbrella of US and British warplanes that prevent Iraqi forces from entering the area.
Senior US officials believe that the PUK and the KDP could play the role that the Northern Alliance played in Afghanistan in any US-led assault on Iraq.
The attempt on Mr Salih’s life took place as US ambassador Ryan Crocker, was visiting northern Iraq. Five of Mr Salih’s bodyguards and two of the attackers were killed in a gun battle with pro-Western Kurdish fighters that ensued when the assassination attempt took place.
Kurdish officials draw a comparison between the attempt on Mr Salih and the killing of the revered Afghan guerrilla commander Ahmad Shah Masood, days before the 11 September terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Ansar-al-Islam last year killed Franso Hariri, the most senior Christian politician in northern Iraq. The group’s fighters are believed to have been trained in Afghanistan and sent to northern Iraq in an attempt to weaken the pro-Western Kurdish forces.
Kurdish officials say the attempt on Mr Salih served as a message that both the PUK and the KDP are vulnerable to Saddam’s machinations.
The Kurds insist, however, that they are determined in their struggle to overthrow Saddam and build a democratic Kurdish society that would be part of a post-Saddam Iraq.
Following the attack, Mr Salih said it had only strengthened Kurdish resolve. 'The attack has united all Kurds and has shown to friends and foes that all sides in northern Iraq are committed to enhancing the quality of life,' he said.
Their determination notwithstanding, the Kurds are walking a fine line. Past experience has shown that the United States could drop the Kurds in any confrontation with Saddam Hussein, leaving them at the Iraqi leader’s mercy.
As a result, the Kurds are demanding iron-clad guarantees before aligning themselves with any US-led attempt to unseat Saddam.
'Reports have once again started talking about Saddam’s use of weapons of mass destruction against ‘his own people’,' wrote Fereydun Hilmi, a Kurdish analyst, in Kurdish Media.
'This highly misguided and insulting phrase to the Kurdish nation which purports to suggest that the Kurds are actually Saddam’s own people carries with it all the danger signs that the West intends to end 11 years of de-facto independence for South Kurdistan.
'The Kurds are not Arabs and Saddam is a staunch Arab nationalist - that means that the Kurds could never be regarded as Saddam’s people by any stretch of imagination,' added Mr Hilmi.
the scotsman
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