Kurds Bask in the Fall of Kirkuk

From the hills, pickup trucks loaded with men and Kalashnikov rifles sped down the mine-speckled highway, dropping onto the flatlands, zooming past oil slicks and curls of barbed wire and screeching into this city, where gunfire echoed overhead and the dream of tens of thousands of Kurds stood shining in dusty heat.

“Kirkuk is liberated.”

“Kirkuk is liberated.”

The battle was barely finished, but the trucks kept coming. They fanned through the streets, greeted by boys with bandoliers and boomboxes. People ran from homes and children watched as statues of Saddam Hussein were yanked from their pedestals. A city lost had been reclaimed.

The fall of Kirkuk came Thursday morning. After an uprising organized by a Kurdish underground, thousands of Kurdish fighters backed by U.S. Special Forces entered the city as the Iraqi army vanished, melting away beyond the smoke of a single oil fire.

Kirkuk is the Kurdish promised land. In a decade-long ethnic-cleansing campaign, Hussein’s Baath Party exiled 100,000 Kurds from this city. The return of many came as contrails from U.S. B-52 bombers laced the sky.

Some were greeted by families they had not seen in 10 years. They met in streets and alleys. They ate kebabs. They drank beer. They shot a ton of lead into the air.

And they looted. Cars and trucks and donkeys were laden with stolen things. One boy carried a kitchen sink; another walked through the crowd with a ceiling fan and a gas mask.

Anyone looking slightly American was kissed. This spontaneous outpouring -- far more impassioned than scenes that greeted U.S. and British forces in Baghdad or Basra -- reflected the deep gratitude many Kurds feel for the United States, which has protected them with U.S. and British warplanes for the last 12 years.

Meanwhile, the Arabs in town, fearing retribution over Hussein’s treatment of Kurds, stayed in their neighborhoods, peeking around corners and looking out windows as Kurdish fighters waved Kurdish flags until sunset.

The Baath Party headquarters in the Iskan neighborhood was smoking and ammunition stored inside was popping. Three bodies lay outside in the dirt. They were those of party officials who battled members of the Kurdish underground. They were killed because they refused to surrender. One, Abu Ihab, looked as if he had been struck by an ax. The two others were shot.

The Kurds in the neighborhood were glad. Someone said the dead men were responsible for the disappearance of 18 Kurds. The bodies were covered with dirty cloths and left in the sun.

“The people captured the Baath central committee,” said Ali Hussin Ali. “We killed and many ran away.”

“He was still fighting and he killed two Kurds,” Salih Star said of one of the dead men. “He kept fighting and he wouldn’t give up and we had to kill him.”

“We think there are more dead Baath people inside the headquarters,” said Mohammad Zabir. “But the bullets keep exploding and we can’t go inside.”

Around a few corners and down the street, a crowd watched as a man climbed up a statue of Hussein. He tied a hose around the neck and attempted to pull it down. More men joined him. One of them spray-painted Hussein’s face red. The crowd cheered. Another man, in a sharp Middle Eastern rebuke, smacked the sole of his shoe over Hussein’s head.

“Down, down Saddam,” the crowd chanted. “Yes, yes Bush.”

A U.S. Special Forces team watched and then moved on. Hundreds of U.S. troops were massing outside the city to keep order.

There was little violence in the streets. There was a lot of dangerous driving as men and boys carrying guns and grenades swayed in the backs of trucks and celebrated. Girls in colored dresses skipped on the sidewalks. Most hotels were closed; no one expected the city to fall so quickly.

Kirkuk -- about 25 miles from the autonomous Kurdish-controlled enclave of northern Iraq -- has long been a place of misery. The Kurds attempted to capture it in the 1991 uprising after the Persian Gulf War. They failed and it fell under Hussein’s control. But while northern Iraq prospered, Kirkuk, Iraq’s richest oil city, producing 800,000 barrels a day, remained poor.

“We lived as animals,” said Shunasi Hassan, chief operator at the North Oil Co., a sprawling place of tall grass and wells. “I make less than $60 a month. I have a family of three children, one in engineering school. Do you think that’s enough?”

Hassan is an Arab. He said he wasn’t worried about Kurdish revenge. Anyone who lived in Kirkuk, he suggested, knew that most anyone else, whether he is Arab, Kurd or Turkmen, didn’t live much better.

“Why should I be scared?” he asked. “All our problems will now be solved.”

Salim Gridi was less optimistic. An Arab from Baghdad, he moved to Kirkuk nine months ago for a construction job. As Kirkuk changed hands, Gridi boasted that if he had a rifle he too would have fought against Hussein. Such sentiment didn’t help him, he said, when three Kurds punched him in the mouth and stole his Oldsmobile.

“The Kurds welcomed me before,” said Gridi. “I don’t know why they took my car.”

Najat Musadyn was not so interested in ethnic complexities. He was busy looting the Rafidain Bank. He has a doctorate in physics, but these days his Chevy pickup is more important. He was hired by Aso Hamid, 17, to haul a refrigerator and three overstuffed chairs away from the bank. Musadyn was paid $2.

“I’m taking this to a relative’s house,” said Hamid, wedged in the back of the truck with his take. “For 15 years I’ve been displaced from my home and now I have a right to take this stuff.... The Arabs robbed us all. My brother and sister were killed. I have a right to take this. It belongs to the government.”

At dusk, the smoke from the oil fire meandered like a wide river through the sky. Musadyn and Hamid drove off into traffic full of other looters. The Kurdish fighters patrolled the streets, but there was more joy than order. A man watched it all from a curb, watched black Kalashnikovs fade in the night, watched people stride through streets, claiming victory.

The man said little. He lives in Baghdad. He came to Kirkuk to find his son, who, 15 days before the war began, deserted from the 2nd Infantry Division of the Iraqi army.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The troubled history of the Kurds

The fall of Kirkuk could heighten tensions in a region beset by a long history of ethnic and nationalist turmoil. The Kurdish region spills into at least four countries. Turkey fears that a Kurdish push for a separate state would trigger similar efforts among its own 12 million Kurds. Sandwiched in the mountainous north between oil-rich Kirkuk and the border with Turkey, the largely rural Iraqi Kurds now have a quasi-democratic regional government and are under the security umbrella of U.S. forces. With Indo-European roots, there is a mosaic of religious and linguistic variation among Kurds.

Background on the region:

A mountainous hotspot

The unofficial term “Kurdistan” refers to the Kurdish-inhabited land stretching from Turkey into Iran. The mountains give way to fertile hills where generations of Kurds have raised sheep and goats.

Who are the Kurds?

Hundreds of different tribal groups and clans make up today’s Kurds, who probably are descendants of Indo-European tribes moving westward into the region. In ancient times “Kurd” was synonymous with nomad.

Language and politics unique to Kurds Religion and language have kept Kurds apart from other Iraqis.

Kurd numbers Estimated numbers in the countries with the most Kurds: Turkey 12 million Iran 5 million Iraq 3.7 million Syria 1 million

Iraq’s Population Arabic 75% Kurdish 20% Turkman, Assyrian, other 5%

Kurdish economy For years the largely rural Kurds have been discouraged from self-sufficiency. Imports of grains, meat, poultry and dairy products have discouraged local production.

Kurdish language The Kurdish language consists of two main dialects and several localized dialects.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) More rural and tribe-based. Leader: Massoud Barzani; brother Wajy commands a special forces unit and was injured in a recent “friendly fire” incident.

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Draws much of its support from urban areas. Leader: Jalal Talabani

* The Kurds in Iraq

12th century: Term “Kurdistan” is first used.

1920: After WWI, European allies sign Treaty of Sevres which dismantles the Ottoman Empire and promises an autonomous state for Kurds. Three years later Treaty of Lausanne omits rights for Kurds.

1926: League of Nations awards city of Mosul to Iraq rather than Turkey, bringing Kurdish areas under Iraqi rule.

1933: Iraq becomes an independent state.

1946: Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) is established; Mulla Mustafa Barzani is elected chairman.

1968: Baath Party takes control of Iraq.

1973: Working with Iran and Israel, U.S. funds Kurdish peshmerga and encourages them to fight Baathists.

1974: Baghdad introduces law providing autonomy to the Kurdish region, excluding Kirkuk.

1975: Breakaway faction of KDP forms, led by Massoud Barzani, son of KDP leader. In March, elder Barzani surrenders.

June 1975: Barzani rival Jalal Talabani forms Iraq-supported Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

1978: Turkish Kurd Abdullah Ocalan forms Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a Marxist resistance group whose goal is to create an independent homeland for Kurds.

March 1979: Exiled leader Barzani dies.

July 1979: Saddam Hussein becomes president.

1980-88: Iran-Iraq war. After the war, about 60,000 Kurds flee to Turkey and more escape to Iran.

August 1984: Turkish resistance group Kurdistan Workers’ Party launches attacks on Turkish forces in Kurdish region.

March 1988: Iraqi air force drops mustard gas and other chemicals on Kurdish town of Halabja, killing more than 5,000.

March 1991: Failed Kurdish uprising against Iraq regime forces estimated 450,000 Kurds to Turkish border and more than a million to Iran.

April 1991: U.N. resolution demands an end to repression of Kurds. U.S. troops move into northern Iraq and establish no-fly zones.

1994-97: Fighting between two factions leaves Iraqi Kurds divided. KDP dominates north, while PUK controls south.

2002: Under pressure from U.S., the two main political factions form a parliament.

Sources: Roberta Cohen, Brookings Institution; Center for Strategic and International Studies; “A Modern History of the Kurds”; Washington Kurdish Institute; Dr. M. Izady, Columbia University; CIA World Factbook

Researched by Times graphics reporter Julie Sheer