Kurdish hopes raised as Iraqis pull back

The Kurds in northern Iraq are hoping their forces will provide the bulk of the infantry in a new front against Saddam Hussein as the good weather allows the Americans to continue their military build-up there. US cargo jets delivered men, tanks, artillery and other weapons last night while Iraqi troops began to withdraw from their positions near the border.

The steady build-up of the American 173rd Airborne Division was matched by continued bombardment of the 300-mile long Iraqi defences forming a border between Saddam's territory and the autonomous Kurdish-ruled north.

Iraqi troops pulled back from the frontline in Chamchamal yesterday afternoon in what appeared to be a well-ordered, tactical withdrawal.

Troops were moved out of the area in trucks abandoning their frontline bunkers. Kurdish militia-and villagers were quick to claim them and then went on a looting rampage.

The Iraqi movement back from the frontline was the first significant withdrawal by Iraqi troops in northern Iraq.

It is in the north where both Kurdish and American forces have their eyes on the two strategic cities of Mosul and Kirkuk just a few miles behind the Iraqi frontline.

Meanwhile, on the Iranian border in the mountains stands Halabja - infamous for an Iraqi gas attack which killed 5,000 Kurds 15 years ago. There American special forces and Kurdish militia are fighting their own local war in a sideshow to the main event in southern Iraq.

Their aim is to extinguish a militant group known as Ansar al Islam which is backed by Saddam and has had links with Osama bin Laden's terror group al Qaeda.

Last week Ansar al Islam suffered heavy casualties after being attacked by American air strikes and yesterday it was reported that 100 of its men had been killed or captured.