"We're not equal when it comes to weapons…But we've got strength, determination and faith," boasted a Kurdish commander

KANI MASI, Northern Iraq, March 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Standing vigilant on the snow-covered mountain peaks in northern Iraq some 10 Kilometres away from Turkey, Kurdish fighters are closely watching for any movement by the Turkish troops massed nearby.

"Kurdish fighters in Dahuk returned to their bases to defend against a threatened Turkish incursion into northern Iraq," General Babaker Zebari, the head of the Kurdish forces in the region, stressed Wednesday, March 12.

"We've been told to increase surveillance," says Noori Omar, as he mans his position in the Kurds-held northern Iraq opposite the Turkish border post at Seri, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Wearing a belt full of bullets and Russian-made hand grenades around his waist, Omar said that they are determined to stand up to any Turkish attack.

"We've been fighting against Iraqi soldiers for 50 years. There've been planes, tanks, chemical weapons. We've always fought and we were never afraid.

"Compared to the tough Iraqi soldiers, the Turks will be easy to face, we know something about that," he said.

Another dozen fighters, armed with Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers, and one Russian-made BKC heavy machine gun, are stationed with him in this base just outside the village of Kani Masi in the mountainous Dahuk region.

"The Turkish army is moving, we're moving, everyone is taking positions. The peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) are staying in their bases, but they're ready to respond," said Kani Masi commander Wahid Bakouzi.

"The Kurdish fighters, including those that were on leave, have taken up position at their rear bases. We're not equal when it comes to weapons," acknowledges Bakouzi.

"But we've got strength, determination and faith," he boasted.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which has disputed control of northern Iraq with the Patriotic Union of Kudistan (PUK) since the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf war, also insists it has reinforced its positions along the border.

"We will strike them (the Turks) as soon as they arrive. We only have RPGs (hand-held rocket launchers) against their tanks.

"We will perhaps be unable to hold the front, but we can stage guerrilla attacks," said one KDP fighter.

The move came after hundreds of Turkish troops, vehicles and equipment were deployed near the Iraqi border.

Turkey already has several thousand troops at bases in northern Iraq and has said it plans to send in more to keep a check on the Kurdish groups.

Ankara is worried that the looming U.S.-led war on Iraq may encourage Kurds to break away completely and set up an independent state, offering a rallying point for Turkey's own restive Kurdish population just across the border.

Turks set up the bases in 1997 with the KDP's agreement, at a time when the Iraqi Kurdish group was cooperating in Ankara's fight against the Turkish rebels of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).