Posted on 03/17/2003 4:26:46 PM PST by kattracks
DOHUK, Iraq (Reuters) - A prominent Iraqi tribal leader, previously loyal to President Saddam Hussein, says he has joined forces with a Kurdish faction and predicted that the United States would rapidly triumph in a war on Iraq.
Jowhad Herki told Reuters on Monday that he had shifted his support to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), adding that the Iraqi people were tired of years of conflict and wanted to see the downfall of Saddam.
"We are awaiting orders from the KDP. We will follow their orders," he said from his office in this northern city.
The KDP governs two of the three provinces in northern Iraq that have been under Kurdish control since the 1991 Gulf War. The enclave was set up to protect Kurds facing reprisals from Saddam after a failed uprising at the end of the conflict.
Herki indicated that many of Saddam's allies wanted to switch sides as a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq appeared imminent.
"Even people very close to Saddam want him to leave. When Saddam leaves, (the) Iraqi people will live a better life, even military commanders think the same way," he said.
"No-one is going to fight for Saddam... The war will finish very quickly because the people are very tired. They have seen nothing but destruction," he added.
He said his clan had around 5,000 fighters in or around Mosul, a northern oil city which is controlled by Baghdad and which used to be his base before he defected last year.
Herki said the people of Mosul would rise up and overwhelm Saddam's forces if the United States attacked Iraq: "It will take 15 to 20 minutes. That's not what I call fighting."
The United States and Britain have amassed a 280,000-strong force around the Gulf region for a possible invasion of Iraq, accusing Saddam of failing to meet U.N. demands to scrap chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes. Iraq denies having such weapons.
KDP's foreign affairs spokesman Fawzi Hariri confirmed that Herki had met KDP leader Massoud Barzani last week. He said the tribal leader had originally been recruited by Baghdad to establish "light brigades" for mountain operations.
"He's one of a number who cooperated with the regime for one reason or another, but now he's decided to move away from that and come to this side," Hariri said.
Herki defended his decision to work with Saddam.
"We had no other choice. If we hadn't co-operated my people would have been persecuted or executed, or have had their villages burned down," he said.
The Kurdish enclave is increasingly tense ahead of a possible war. On Sunday Kurds marked the anniversary of a 1988 Iraqi chemical attack that killed some 5,000 people in the town of Halabja.
In growing numbers, Kurds are packing up and leaving their homes near the front line with Saddam's forces and moving north to remote mountainous regions to escape the threat.
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