'God willing, we'll all be brothers again'

7.45am

Kurdish guerrillas scored their biggest success of the Iraq war by capturing the ethnically diverse northern oil city of Kirkuk last night (NZ time) in an almost bloodless rout of government forces that sparked joyful street celebrations.

It was the first major city in northern Iraq to fall.

The city was pounded by US B-52 bombers early in the morning, helping to trigger an Iraqi collapse.

The Kurds also captured the town of Khanaqin, near the Iranian border.

A dozen US tanks and other armoured vehicles were seen rolling towards Iraq's third city of Mosul, making their debut on the northern front in the war, now in its fourth week.

US Lieutenant Mark Kitchens said elements of Iraq's Republican Guard were gathering around Mosul and Tikrit, Saddam's birthplace and power base north of Baghdad.

US planes were bombing those formations, he added.

Kirkuk is the oil-rich prize some feared would set Iraq's disparate population at each other's throats, but when Kirkuk fell its people said they had suffered too much together to now fight.

The city is also a mosaic of ethnicities that mirrors the complexity of the society at large, with Kurds, Turkish speakers and Christians all claiming to have been there longest, and resenting suffering under Saddam Hussein's rule.

As US-backed Kurdish fighters overran the city, however, people in Kirkuk said they had formed a fraternity in misery under Saddam's Ba'ath party, and vowed the last blood shed in the city belonged to his government.

"I'm pulling on that rope with them, and I'm as happy for them as I am for myself," said Adnan, 56, a Turkoman, as Kurds from the city and others who streamed in from nearby towns yanked down a statue of the Iraqi ruler in the city centre.

"We're Iraqis and Muslims and so are they. In Kirkuk, we lived side by side with them, even with the Arabs; it was only with Saddam that these differences mattered and who you were made people worry. God willing we'll all be brothers again."

Arabs, some of them resettled from southern Iraq over the years to change the demographic face of Saddam's main source of petroleum revenue, said they too were victims of the vanquished Iraqi government, and saw their future in city.

"Everyone bleeds the same here," said Hashim Hammoud, 32. "Unless you were in the party, there was no advantage for anyone."

Thomas, a Christian, said he was happy to celebrate the end of Saddam's rule with Kurds -- many of whom had been driven from the city and celebrated their return on Thursday by smashing into government offices and looting whatever they could carry.

He worried, however, what the anarchy of celebration might mean for later cooperation.

"I'm afraid of what might happen if these people who are stealing are left to do it," he said. "Everyone is ecstatic, but this is worrisome. Aren't we supposed to build a new state here together? It's not a good start."

It was unclear how far the Kurdish move into Kirkuk had been co-ordinated with US forces, under whose authority the Kurds have said they operate. However, Washington has promised that US armed forces would soon be in control of Kirkuk.

As day faded, groups of hooting visitors carted away scrap metal, office furniture and copper wire.

Newly arrived Kurdish fighters from once-opposing factions that now jointly run northern Iraq bickered over parking places, and over who should direct traffic.

Ali, 42, also a Turkoman, shook his head at the behaviour of Kirkuk's new visitors, and hoped they were an exception that would prove a rule of co-existence among Saddam's victims.

"We have been through enough here that no one wants to be exposed to the things that happened, again. Hopefully everyone feels the same way."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war