TIME: The War and
Kurdistan
Thursday, March 20, 2003
By MICHAEL WARE
On the Iraqi Front
As the first cruise missiles plunged into Baghdad on
Thursday morning the conscripts of the 8th Division
of the Iraqi army's 1st Corps hunkered down in their
gunpits. During the bombardment hitting far to the
south the Iraqis sat tight while below them the
Kurdish villagers of Shorish waited hopefully for
American bombs to rain down. But they did not come.
Dawn had already broken on an overcast day on the
northern front. Throughout the attack the troops
showed no signs of movement. It wasn't until
mid-morning, after Saddam's I'm-still-here television
address, that his soldiers appeared above ground.
Soon dozens of men were walking ant-like in single
files along the ridge carrying packages that could
not be made out through binoculars. A large military
truck came over the rise, stopping at the major
bunker before passing along between a number of
smaller others, stopping at points and triggering
great commotion. "This is very, very unusual," said
Kurdish peshmerga (meaning "those who face death")
Abdullah Sajit, who could not bear to turn his
binoculars away for a moment.
About 40 Kurdish intelligence and security officials
watches from a cinderblock house in Shorish no more
than a quarter mile from the nearest Iraqi bunker.
"We're waiting for any soldiers to come down and
surrender," said one. Deserters had successfully made
for this spot countless times in recent months, but
none did so today. After a little more than an hour
the welcoming committee left, leaving a handful of
soldiers behind to patrol.
Peshmerga scouts keeping close eye then noticed at
least two strange figures moving along the Iraqi line
but not wearing Iraqi military uniforms. After close
study Sajit, acting as an observer, concluded they
were "mujahedin", fundamentalist Muslim militants
from either Iran or Palestine known to support
Saddam. This was not taken as a good sign. "They will
be making sure the soldiers stay and fight," said
Sajit with a sigh.
At 10:30 a.m. a dozen Iraqi soldiers came halfway
down the hill, congregating beside a small bunker.
For ten minutes they met and seemed to huddle
together. "Look, they're dancing," exclaimed one of
the young peshmerga. The Iraqis had formed a small,
tight circle and were kicking their legs and bouncing
about. Laughter passed from one peshmerga to another
until the lower voice of a veteran fighter said,
"They're not dancing". Moments later the flash of a
mortar firing came from the midst of the Iraqis. The
peshmerga scrambled for cover. Seconds later the
round detonated nearby.
A heavy machinegun, a 12.7mm DSHK chattered short
bursts. Then another flash from the freshly-placed
mortar pit and a second round came soaring in. This
time it detonated above the ground in a filthy black
cloud. Villagers and onlookers scattered and ran to
their homes.
Around 11 a.m., just over a small rise out of sight
from Shorish, another DSHK let loose in long streams
for almost a minute. A young Iraqi conscript had
attempted to desert and was cut down by his own men.
It was the third deserter killed this way since
Monday after months of almost free passage for
fleeing soldiers. "The ones the other day were torn
up and the Iraqis took one of their bodies away in a
blanket. This one will not be different," said Sajit.
By lunchtime the front was returning to normal. On
the Kuridsh front the Iraqi's first reactions to the
U.S. attack was over.