GIs to Replace Iraqi Troops in Kurdish City

A detachment of American soldiers will enter the strategic city of Dahuk in northern Iraq on Friday under an agreement between allied and Iraqi forces aimed at coaxing more Kurds home, the allied commander said.

However, Kurdish guerrilla leaders rejected the plan and demanded a full-scale American occupation of the provincial capital, south of the allied security zone.

“If we don’t have the Americans, no one will go home,” guerrilla leader Hussain Sinjari said Wednesday.

“It’s not enough,” said Fadhil Merani, a representative of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan.

The plan, announced by U.S. Army Lt. Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, attempts to break a logjam over the future of Dahuk, a Kurdish population center and a key city in the allied operation to help Kurdish refugees.

“It is my hope that it’s enough to bring the Kurds home,” Shalikashvili said. “But only the Kurds can answer that for you.”

Shalikashvili, commander of Operation Provide Comfort, told reporters that Iraq agreed to withdraw all its troops and secret police, estimated at 3,000, in and near Dahuk by Friday.

In addition, the Iraqis will allow “a floating number” of allied troops and non-military personnel to work on reconstructing the city, badly damaged during the Kurdish rebellion against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that was crushed in March, the general said.

For their part, the Iraqis will be allowed to establish a checkpoint outside Dahuk to stop the flow of Kurdish guerrilla arms into the area, Shalikashvili said.

In an incident Tuesday evening, Iraqi Brig. Gen. Nushwan Danoun, who has been involved in the security negotiations, was attacked by a mob of 300 stone-throwing and stick-wielding Kurds in Zakhu as he tried to board his white Mercedes-Benz, according to a U.S. Army spokeswoman, Maj. Susan Ives. U.S. military police fired in the air to scare the crowd away. Danoun sustained abrasions on his arms.