U.S. Planes Pound Northern Iraqi Targets
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is activity of a much different kind, too, in northern Iraq in the town of Kalak. CNN's Ben Wedeman had some interesting observations throughout the day tonight. Good evening, Ben. What are you seeing?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Bill. As you know, we've been spending a good deal of time on this hill overlooking the Kurdish village of Kalak. This evening it was the same thing, looking through our binoculars, toward the Iraqi positions. Suddenly, we noticed there was a large crowd of people on the road that leads from Kalak over the hill into the Iraqi occupied or controlled territory. We rushed down to the village, and discovered that there were dozens of Peshmarga Kurdish fighters heading up, walking up the road in the direction of the Iraqi positions. They said that some time just before sunset here in Kalak, they noticed that the Iraqis were no longer in their positions, and that's exactly what happened. They had pulled back without any indication, any notice whatsoever. We've been told by one Kurdish commander that they've retreated to positions about search kilometers to the west of here in the direction of the city of Mosul. So the bombing which we've been watching very closely here is over. It appears that the front is moving further west into the direction of Mosul. All today we were in an area to the north of Mosul, also there a dramatic Iraqi pullback. They've pulled back about 12 miles. Now, this was an operation which, I should probably correct myself, it was not a pullback. It was a retreat. In this case, the Iraqi army positions which were highly fortified in that area, had been intensely bombed by the Americans. And then the Kurds apparently moved in yesterday afternoon after they had been bombarded by Iraqi artillery. They moved in. They had firefight with the Iraqis. The Iraqis fled that area. As they were leaving, three of their trucks were hit by American missiles, completely destroying those trucks. Now, significantly, there was an American involvement in this action. I saw more than two dozen U.S. troops, special forces, and ordinary U.S. Army troops in that area. They apparently had been directing the airstrikes in that area. Another interesting thing we saw is that the local population, who I must add are Kurdish Iraqis, and not Arabs, were very happy to see the Peshmarga, the Kurdish fighters showing up. You're hearing them cheer right there. They were celebratory mooed, applauding the arrival of the Kurdish fighters. One man telling me he was happy to see the dictator, Saddam, and his troops leave this area of Iraq -- Bill.</s>HEMMER: Ben, quickly here, one has to think the news that's happening with the U.S. military advancing south of Baghdad, that that news is spreading to your area there. Is that, in part, what explains, in addition to the U.S. bombing overhead, why the pullback, why this retreat is happening?</s>WEDEMAN: Well, really, I think the retreat is directly related to the intense and really relentless bombing of these Iraqi positions in the north. Obviously people are heartened by the news the Kurds, who have no love for the government of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, are heartened by the news. But really, this has been building up over the last week and a half. We've seen, for instance, Iraqi soldiers surrendering, giving up, running over to the Kurdish side, because that bombing was too intense. And so I suspect really has to do more with local factors, with the fact that the Kurds have been pressuring them, the American airplanes have been bombing them -- they're just pulling back to areas. In some places, they're demoralized, they're essentially surrendering. In other areas, they're pulling back to areas I think they believe are more easily defensible. So it really is more local rather than in any way related to what's going on in the south here, around Baghdad.</s>HEMMER: All right, Ben, thanks. Ben Wedeman, again, watching the northern front in the town of Kalak. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com