Khaneqin: Kurdish fighters moved into the strategic city of Khaneqin North East of
Baghdad on April 10 as Iraqi resistance in the North of the country appeared to be
collapsing.
Hundreds of Kurdish troops moved through this city of about 100,000 people and were
greeted by cheering crowds.
Mola Bakhtiyar, a leading official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said the
Kurds took control of the oil-producing city, about 145 km North of Baghdad, at
midmorning without resistance from government forces.
Khaneqin lies South of the Kurdish autonomous region, which runs along the Iranian
border and reaches within 160 km of Baghdad.
Kurdish fighters had been massing within striking distance of Khaneqin for
days.
Residents said the city had been under a 06:00 to 18:00 hours curfew for several
days. After Iranian television broadcast images of Iraqis celebrating the fall of
President Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad on April 9 evening, people emerged onto
the streets to find the Iraqi soldiers gone and members of the ruling Baath Party
were nowhere to be seen.
Meanwhile, another report said that Kurdish forces have captured the Northern Iraqi
oil capital of Kirkuk.
"Kurdish fighters are firing into the air to celebrate their victory. Residents of
Kirkuk have spilled into the streets in jubilation," correspondent Nevin Sungur of
the Turkish television channel NTV said in a live telephone report from the
city.
