An Iraqi Kurd peshmerga fighter looks at a guide for the positions of the Iraqi forces in northern Iraq

Additional reporting by Abdul Raheem Ali, IOL Staff

BAGHDAD, April 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Units of Kurdish fighters have arrived in the peripheries of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, while other units are only 120km from northern Baghdad, a member of the Politburo of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) claimed Thursday, April 3.

Speaking to IslamOnline.net over the phone, Adel Murad said Iraqi troops pulled back from a large number of the areas in the triangle of Baghdad, Kirkuk and Tikrit in addition to other areas in the western front between Arbil and Mosul.

He said the peshmerga (Kurdish fighters belonging to the main Kurdish parties)  captured the areas of Qadi al-Karm and the southern of Kala’ after the Iraqi troops had withdrawn from them.

“The main reason of the Iraqi pullout is to join forces in Baghdad to help protect the Iraqi regime,” he said, noting that a large number of the peshmerga fighters were killed by the minefields left by the Iraqi troops.

Murad further said that many Kurdish families came home after the Iraqi withdrawal, pointing out that the Kurds “have no intention to attack the Iraqi army, but will defend their country no matter what it takes.”

He added that the peshmerga have not yet joined the U.S. troops in attacking the Iraqi forces, asserting they would not take part in any attack on the Iraqi army.

Murad also denied reports that there was a U.S. administration installed in Iraq, noting that those who circulated such repots were the “mouthpieces of the Iraqi regime.”

“Kurds just as the Iraqi opposition reject any government in post-war Iraq other than an Iraq one…Kurds would resist (the U.S. forces) as the Iraqi people did resist over the span of their history the installment of any foreign government.

“Kurds will defend their areas and call for setting up a federal and democratic government that respects all races and doctrines,” he underlined, claiming that the Iraqi regime “was dying.”

Peshmerga Clash With Iraqi Forces

In the meantime, Iraqi forces fired mortar bombs Thursday at the Kurdish town of Khabat after a battle earlier in the day with peshmerga fighters backed by U.S. warplanes.

Two bombs landed on homes in Khabat in the early evening, killing one man and injuring three civilians, one seriously, security officer Bikas Bekhudan told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In the morning, U.S.-led air raids targeted Iraqi positions near the town of Khazer, 10 kilometers (six miles) away, where forces loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein have been holed up since early Thursday.

The raids came as U.S. special units were accompanying the peshmerga in their drive toward the main northern city of Mosul, an AFP correspondent said.

According to Kurdish fighters, the U.S. aircraft were called in after clashes started with automatic weapons and then mortars, with Iraqi forces firing at least 100 mortar bombs.