Kurdish leader- Forces would claim oil fields

SORAN BASE, Iraq -- The top Iraqi Kurdish military commander said Saturday his forces would try to capture nearby oil-rich areas if the United States strikes at Saddam Hussein's regime.

The battlefield strategy outlined by Cmdr. Hamid Efendi gives added muscle to a draft constitution proposed earlier this month that envisioned the oil center of Kirkuk as the future capital of their homeland.

But the Kurdish goal of extending their authority to the prized oil fields around Kirkuk and Mosul -- now outside the Western-protected Kurdish enclave -- carries military and political risks that could trouble Pentagon planners.

Iraqi Kurdish fighters could face direct combat with the more powerful Iraqi forces and open a new front that may divert attention from the goal of toppling Saddam. It would also enrage neighboring Turkey, which controls crucial trade routes for the landlocked Iraqi Kurds.

Turkey sees the oil-producing areas as a traditional ethnic Turkish zone. It also fears an oil-enriched Kurdish region in Iraq could eventually seek independence and encourage autonomy seeking Turkish Kurds.

"Kirkuk is Kurdish. So are parts of Mosul," said Efendi, leader of the 50,000-strong Iraqi Kurdish armed forces comprising soldiers and irregular militia. "We would want to take these areas if the Americans attack."

Intimidation reports

On Saturday, Turkey's military denied local newspaper reports that as many as 12,000 troops had crossed into northern Iraq in a bid to intimidate Iraqi Kurds there. Turkey already maintains thousands of troops in neighboring Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, to chase rebel Kurds seeking autonomy from Turkey.

"These reports are totally false and do not reflect the truth," a brief military statement said.

Iraqi-Kurd commanders, meanwhile, piece together a credible fighting force with limited resources.

"Into formation," shouted a sergeant to 3rd Battalion soldiers at the Soran Base, a former Iraqi military complex about 280 miles northwest of Baghdad. The troops, wearing mismatched uniforms and using battered AK-47 rifles, stood at attention for review.

"They may be a bit ragged, but they have something to fight for," said Col. Hani Pulslim. "That is our biggest weapon. They have a cause."

The training at Soran -- controlled by the most powerful Iraqi Kurdish faction, the Kurdish Democratic Party -- takes soldiers on mountain maneuvers and includes basic weaponry such as mortars and anti-tank cannons. Castoff Turkish and American uniforms were part of the mix of green and desert tan uniforms. Some wore belts left over from the Iraqi military.

"We use everything," said Pulslim. "We can't afford to waste."

Efendi said U.S. authorities have made no direct requests for Iraqi Kurd military help during a possible war. But Efendi said U.S. forces would be permitted to stage attacks from the Kurdish area, including possible expansion of two small airstrips for U.S. warplanes.

He appeared reluctant, however, to spread his forces beyond the Iraqi Kurds' self-defined borders, including the oil fields in north-central Iraq.

"We don't want to attack. We want to defend our territory and the Kurds," he told The Associated Press.

The memories of the Gulf War's aftermath are still vivid and painful. Saddam's forces wiped out a Kurdish uprising that Washington encouraged with words, but failed to follow through with military support.

"No one will again defeat us on Kurdish land," he said. "We will defend it down to the last life."

But he admitted the Iraqi Kurdish arsenal is not extensive: mortars, heavy machine guns, anti-tank weapons and "two or three" old Iraqi tanks.

Among the officers are about 150 defectors from the Iraqi military, mostly Kurds who left after the Gulf War.

Burhan Hadibizey -- a former brigadier in the Iraqi army and now part of the Iraqi Kurdish central command -- believes Saddam could unleash chemical weapons if his regime could survive the initial American onslaught.

"He has used them in the past. I don't see why he wouldn't use them again if the battle drags on," he said. "This is a big worry."

Saddam's forces launched chemical attacks during the 1980-88 war with Iran. In 1988, Iraqi poison gas killed approximately 5,000 people in the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja.

"From our point of view," said Hadibizey. "Saddam is capable of anything."