[kcvl]

Kurds take Kirkuk: BBC
April 10 2003
London


US-backed Kurdish forces have captured the northern Iraqi oil capital of Kirkuk, British and Turkish television reported today, with the Turkish report saying that looting had broken out in the city.

"Kurdish fighters are firing into the air to celebrate their victory. Residents of Kirkuk have spilled into the streets in jubilation," correspondent Nevin Sungur of the Turkish television channel NTV said in a live telephone report from the city.

"People have started looting," she said, adding that Iraqi forces had fled the city without fighting.

"It seems like Kirkuk has fallen," said the BBC's correspondent, Dumeeth Luthra, though the BBC added on its teletext service that US military spokesmen could not confirm the report.

And a Sky News television correspondent, reporting live from northern Iraq, said Kurdish forces had entered Kirkuk from the south and west.


http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/10/1049567805489.html

[BagCamAddict]

They do this to us every day. News BREAKS just MINUTES before the CentCom briefing. Then the journalists ask CentCom about it, and they always say "this information is just coming in, so we have no information on it at this time."

And then the next day, the journalists have forgotten all about it, so they NEVER ask the followup question "Soooo? What did you find out about thus-and-so??"

So you can bet we'll see the journalists ask about Kirkuk this morning, and you can bet the answer is "I won't comment on ongoing operations." :-)

[BagCamAddict]

WOW... that example about the oil wells and psyops leaflets was GREAT !!

[BagCamAddict]

"Kurdish fighters are firing into the air to celebrate their victory."

Someone has GOT to teach these people that what goes up must come down. Also, that it's not easy to tell where the incoming sniper fire is coming from when everyone next to you is shooting into the sky. Can't we teach them another way to celebrate? Let's throw out some NON-VIOLENT ways of celebrating:

Everyone do 'The Wave'
Get Drunk
Break Dance
Blow soap bubbles
Shoot Water Pistols
High Five
Chest-butt like Frat boys
Standing Ovations
Sing the Iraqi National Anthem

Other suggestions??

[BagCamAddict]

Al Jazeera asks two questions:

What are your military plans for Tikrit? Please give me exact details, because I need to go call Saddam and let him know.

Also, several months before this war started, the Iraqi Govt let a bunch of "criminals" out of prison. It now seems that these criminals are doing a bunch of looting, and innocent civilians are uncomfortable. What are you going to do about these criminals that the Iraqi Govt set free before you were even here?

(Again, it's all our fault.)