Kurdish troops say take northern Iraq town Domiz

Reuters | 4/05/03

[kattracks]

Kurdish troops say take northern Iraq town Domiz

DOMIZ, Iraq, April 5 (Reuters) - Kurdish peshmerga militia fighters said they captured the town of Domiz in northern Iraq on Saturday after a firefight with defending Iraqi troops.

A Kurdistan Democratic Party military official told Reuters the battle followed a reconnaissance mission by Kurds investigating the town they thought was abandoned by Iraqi troops.

"A team went there on a reconnaissance mission but the other side started firing. Before we knew it, we had captured the whole place," a KDP military official said.

"It was their fault. They shouldn't have started firing."

Peshmerga fighters asked U.S. special forces to call in air support to hit areas of sporadic Iraqi mortar fire.

The fight in Domiz was the first time KDP peshmerga had advanced from Dohuk south toward Iraq's third largest city, Mosul.

The area along the main road between Dohuk and Mosul, where Domiz is located, has been heavily bombed since the northern front in the Iraq war began.

Domiz was home to an Iraqi military base. Local people say the luxury houses there were reserved exclusively for Baath Party members who left the city when the bombing started.

The KDP official said there were no casualties among his fighters.

04/05/03 12:59 ET

[Cicero]

I confess I am more nervous about this northern area than I am about Baghdad. Presumably our forces have had time to correct for the betrayal by Turkey, but I won't feel confident about "Plan B" in the north until we control the northern oil fields at Kirkuk and Mosul. That means occupation by American forces, because if the Kurdish forces capture them that might tempt the Turks to come in.

Turkey badly miscalculated by listening to France and refusing us passage of our northern forces. They may yet hope to recoup this gross political error with a quick invasion of northern Iraq. I hope not.

[Grampa Dave]

Don't be nervous about this area. The ones who need to be nervous and worry about staying alive are the Baath Party Members and the Fedayeen.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Without tank columns we will not see the kind of advances that have ben so successful in the south. But the USAF will keep them pinned down until mechanized forces arrive in the next week or so. If they are stupid enough to break from the cities, they will suffer the same fate as the Medina and Nebuchadnezzar RG divisions (= wiped out).

[Paradox]

"A team went there on a reconnaissance mission but the other side started firing. Before we knew it, we had captured the whole place," a KDP military official said.

"It was their fault. They shouldn't have started firing."

Hah! This made me laugh for some reason.

[DannyTN]

Me too.

You know you are in bad shape, when you lose a town to the reconnaissance team.

[Ahban]

"It was their fault". I read in a newspaper article that the Kurds, in exchange for putting our firepower at their disposal, had agreed to let us dictate when and how far they were to advance. This sounds like a case of a Peshmerga unit advancing beyond their alloted bounds and they want to make sure that it is understood that this was not by their design.

[xm177e2]

"A team went there on a reconnaissance mission but the other side started firing. Before we knew it, we had captured the whole place," a KDP military official said.

Oh, those zany Kurds!

[hoosiermama]

"reserved exclusively for Baath Party members who left the city when the bombing started."

This seems to be a pattern. Where have all the Baath's gone? How do we sort them out?