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Kurdish sources said 100 people were killed in the attack by Tomahawk missiles

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Kurdish sources said 100 people were killed in the attack by Tomahawk missiles overnight Friday.The Kurds have now put their forces under the command of the US-led coalition in an effort to make themselves a more valuable partner of the US than Turkey in the war. They have also made available four airstrips for US forces to enter Iraqi Kurdistan as a base from which to advance on the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk.The explosion of bombs or missiles illuminated the night sky over Mosul and Kirkuk where the First and Fifth Iraqi Army Corps, each with five divisions, are dug in. The Khalid military camp, one of the largest in Iraq, and the secret police headquarters in Kirkuk were hit, according to Mr Zebari.The Kurdish forces would like to paint themselves as full military allies of the US, especially as they have a somewhat different agenda, including the return of 300,000 Kurdish refugees to Kirkuk and Mosul provinces.Turkey has threatened to send its army across the border if either city is taken by the Kurds.The US has abandoned its plans for an American military government of Iraq after the expected fall of President Saddam, said Mr Zebari after talks with US officials. Instead there would be an Iraqi interim authority which would include the Iraqi opposition and others not connected with the present government.American military assets on the ground in northern Iraq are not large.

There are peshmerga units combined with a small number of US special forces. The US could also fly in airborne brigades, but could not mount anything like the heavy armoured attack being made on the Iraqi army in the south of the country. If it did rely heavily on the Kurds then this might precipitate the Turkish intervention which the US has been trying to avoid.Mr Zebari said there had been one skirmish in which a US/peshmerga unit had called in an air strike that killed three Iraqi soldiers. He hinted that a general attack might occur in two or three days, but the frontline remained quiet yesterday.. It was the weekend the war came home to Britain.

After just three days of conflict, the British death toll had risen to 14. Its pilot, Lieutenant Mark Campbell, said: "We arrived a few minutes after the crash. We were wearing night-vision goggles and our priority was to search for survivors. But all we could see was debris and it was so badly damaged that it was hardly recognisable as the parts of a helicopter. It was a shocking sight."No official cause has been given for the crash in Kuwait, which also claimed the life of one US serviceman, but an investigation is underway.Military analysts believe the crash could be down to one of the helicopters straying from its track during the procedural departure and approach to the carrier. It is common for the Mk7 Airborne Early Warning Sea Kings – the eyes and ears for seaborne air power – to fly without radar at night to disguise their location.

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