Disappointed in War So Far, Kurds Wait and Watch

New Zealand News -- The Kurds, with perhaps 70,000 peshmerga under their command, believe that the longer the war goes on the more likely it is that the US will need them to open a northern front against Saddam.

Disappointment with allied performance is widespread. In Sifaya, a village of smugglers and farmers 1.6km from Government-controlled territory, people watch every step of the war on television. They think Saddam is a long way from falling.

Even in Kurdistan there are flickers of Iraqi patriotism. A Kurdish official, who has spent years opposing Baghdad, admitted: "Iraqis won't like to see American soldiers ripping down posters of Saddam Hussein, though they might like to do it themselves. They didn't enjoy watching the Stars and Stripes being raised near Umm Qasr."