IRAQ: COALITION FORCES ATTACK IRAQI POSITIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF QASER 40KM EAST OF MOSUL
Record ID:
355567
IRAQ: COALITION FORCES ATTACK IRAQI POSITIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF QASER 40KM EAST OF MOSUL
- Title: IRAQ: COALITION FORCES ATTACK IRAQI POSITIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF QASER 40KM EAST OF MOSUL
- Date: 4th April 2003
- Summary: (W5) QASER, 40 KM EAST OF MOSUL, IRAQ (NORTH) (APRIL 4, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. WS: U.S. SPECIAL FORCES SOLDIERS AND KURDISH PESHMERGA SOLDIERS MARCHING IN AREA NEAR THE VILLAGE OF QASER 0.06 2. SLV: PESHMERGA SOLDIERS CARRYING PACKS AND WEAPONS 0.13 3. WS: U.S. SPECIAL FORCES SOLDIERS AND PESHMERGA IN VALLEY 0.18 4. CLOSE-UP OF FOUR PES
- Embargoed: 19th April 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: QASER, 40 KM EAST OF MOSUL, NORTHERN IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVACEH5YFJNVHXTNT9ANN74ISRGX
- Story Text: A combined force of U.S. special forces soldiers and
Kurdish Peshmerga militias, backed by coalition air strikes
are taking ground from Iraqi forces retreating towards the
city of Mosul.
On Friday (April 4, 2003), coalition forces attacked Iraqi
positions near the village of Qaser, 40 km east of Mosul. The
Iraqis put up some resistance, using heavy artillery, but were
eventually forced to retreat and abandon their positions after
heavy bombardment from the air by U.S. F-14 fighters and B-52
bombers, backed by a ground assault.
The continued advance by the U.S. forces and the Kurdish
Peshmerga, follows progress they made on Thursday (April 3),
when they took positions abandoned by the Iraqi army near the
Kurdish frontier village of Kalak.
Reuters photographer Caren Firouz said the retreat started
at around midday, when Iraqi troops pulled back from trenches
where they had held out since late on Thursday morning, after
coming under repeated strikes from U.S. aircraft.
Firouz was walking down the road alongside the Peshmerga,
and said they had pushed forward around three km (two miles)
from the trenches after government forces gave them up.
The retreat from the strategic village of Kalak,
overlooking two bridges connecting Arbil, main city in the
Kurdish-ruled zone, with Mosul, began on the night of
Wednesday to Thursday, when Iraqi troops pulled back around
seven km (four miles), after around 10 days of sustained
bombing.
Mosul is a little over 40 km (25 miles) from Kalak.
As the Peshmerga advanced on Thursday morning, accompanied
by small numbers of U.S. special forces and by journalists
walking with them, they came under fire from Iraqi troops who
had dug themselves into a new defensive line, and the two
sides fought a battle from positions some 500 metres (yards)
apart.
The Iraqis stood their ground despite air strikes which
could clearly be heard throughout the night.
From a position on a ridge above Kalak, until recently the
front line, jets and at least one B-52 bomber could be seen
flying over on Friday morning, and plumes of smoke could
regularly be seen from bombs aimed at the new Iraqi positions.
During the morning several trucks carrying Kurdish troops,
and a small number of vehicles with U.S. special forces,
crossed the checkpoint where the road was blocked and carried
on towards the front line.
The Peshmerga refused to open the road to non-military
traffic on Friday morning, saying it was too dangerous.
Mosul is, with Kirkuk, one of two major oil cities in the
north of Iraq, near the Kurdish ruled zone which has been
autonomous from the rest of Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War.
Both were seen as strategic targets for the U.S.-led
coalition to oust President Saddam Hussein, but an early
attempt to capture them was ruled out by Turkey's refusal to
allow coalition forces to enter northern Iraq from its
territory.
This forced the coalition to delay opening a northern
front. But last week the Kurds made their Harir airstrip
available, and northern operations have been stepped up since
then.
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