Kurdish militia seized an abandoned Iraqi position guarding the approach to Kirkuk, hours after crack US airborne troops were parachuted into northern Iraq to open up a new front. The Kurds struck near Kirkuk after Iraqi troops apparently abandoned their position, an AFP reporter witnessed. But the airdrop of 1,000 US troops under cover of darkness came against the backdrop of Iraqi forces firing around 50 missiles at them. “We fired 44 Tariq missiles and seven Raad missiles at the American forces as they parachuted into Sulaymaniya,” Iraqi military spokesman Hazim al-Rawi told journalists here, without saying if the missiles had caused casualties. Around Kirkuk, peshmerga fighters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) advanced after spotting what appeared to be Iraqi troops pulling back from a ridge they had been occupying. Full Story
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