ARBIL, Northern Iraq (IslamOnline.net) - Jubilant over the downfall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the relative end of daily bombing of Iraqi cities and not opening a northern front for the U.S.-led war that might have triggered hostilities between Kurds and Arabs, Iraqi Kurds flooded the streets of northern Iraq on Thursday, April 10 to celebrate.

"There is no justification for this spontaneous feelings of happiness but that people get rid of the complex of fear from chemical attacks," said Falakeddin Kaka'y, a Kurdish intellectual and member of Parliament.

Saddam's regime has long oppressed the 4 million Kurds living in northern Iraq, despite occasional alliances of convenience between Kurdish leaders and Saddam's regime. In the late 1980s, more than 150,000 Kurds are believed to have been killed by the Iraqi leader's orders. In 1988, in the town of Halabja, a poison chemical attack reportedly wiped out an estimated 5,000 residents.

In the Kurdish administrative capital of Irbil, joy came in many guises. Car horns blared. Boys waved hand-drawn American flags. Militiamen held their weapons overhead.

In the eastern Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah, hundreds gathered in a central square and chanted: "George Bush! George Bush!" Special Forces were cheered as they drove past

But many Kurdish analysts were critical of the U.S. and British forces' non-intervention to stop the rampant spate of looting in the country.

"We regret the scenes of looting in the Iraqi capital, and are concerned there might be physical liquidation in this chaotic atmosphere," Kaka'y added.

"The invading forces bear responsibility for looting the governmental buildings in Iraq, as they could put an end to them," said Sherzad el-Naggar, a political analyst.

Naggar described the fall of Baghdad a day earlier as unexpected, however, warning that it might be a lead to civilian losses in the Arab country.

This came as U.S. and Kurdish forces poured into the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk after a popular uprising, both sides said.

Kirkuk is the northern oil hub where Kurds accuse Saddam of expelling Kurdish inhabitants and replacing them with Arabs.

"The Iraqis withdrew this morning, the population rose up, then the Kurdish fighters arrived," resident Bavi Yassin said.

"The Iraqis left this morning. A few peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) arrived, then the population rose up," Saman Makhmud Abdullah added.

"The peshmergas entered in numbers about a hour ago, they are now in the centre of the city."

"On the edge of Kirkuk no signs of fighting were in evidence, but some looting had begun at administrative buildings," added another resident.

Naggar ruled out any civil conflicts in the northern Kurdish areas, citing a full understanding between all political powers there.

But the Kurdish advance raised Turkey's fears that Iraqi Kurds could use control of Kirkuk to provide the financial basis for an independent state. The Kurds and their U.S. allies say a bid for independence is out of the question.

"It would be unacceptable if they (the Kurds) entered the town to take control and set up an administration," a senior diplomat at the Turkish foreign ministry told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"What we are trying to find out is whether they entered in coordination with U.S. forces or whether it was a spontaneous act," he said.

Turkey would not be worried if the Kurds "entered the town in a few trucks to offer their people a show and if they leave by evening", he added.

Turkey has a large armored force near the Iraqi border and says it could enter Iraq if its interests were threatened. It fears an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq could lead to similar demands by separatist Kurds in southeast Turkey.

Both Iraqi Kurdish leaders and the United States say the formation of a breakaway Kurdish state is out of the question but Turkey, still smarting from more than a decade of conflict with its own separatist Kurdish rebels, has its doubts.