Kurdish militia trains to repel Turkish troops

A line of 25 soldiers in green uniforms, camouflaged with pine branches stuffed into their ammunition belts, crept along the skirt of a conical hill approaching a bunker.

Shots rang out, and the line broke into two, half to storm the bunker from the rear, the other to produce diversionary fire from the front. A few simulated explosions on the hillside, some war whoops, a sprint and the troops took the position.

The choreographed training manoeuvre was carried out at a camp of the Peshmerga, the storied Kurdish militia. The Peshmerga were once a ragtag, baggy-pants guerrilla group famed for stoic perseverance against better-armed adversaries in the harsh conditions of northern Iraq's mountains.

The Kurds are trying to convert the force into a modern fighting group, although still steeped in its guerrilla traditions. It has been refashioned along the lines of the Iraqi army, with spit and polish borrowed from the British.

For the first time since the modernisation programme began in 1997, the Peshmerga are being deployed to defend against an invasion of their territory, a U.S.-protected haven in the northern stretches of Iraq where the Kurds have enjoyed self-rule since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

But the Peshmerga are not deploying against the forces of Iraqi President Saddam Hussain to the south. Rather, units are taking up posts in towns and villages along the border with Turkey, preparing to repel Turkish troops if they try to occupy the Kurdish zone during the expected U.S.-led war against Iraq.

The Turks are their historic enemies, having repressed Kurdish nationalism inside Turkey. The Kurds believe Turkey is now poised to do the same inside Iraq. The Bush administration appears to be a partner in the Turkish plan. To persuade its Nato ally to provide it with bases and easy access to northern Iraq, the United States has discussed letting the Turks into the Kurdish zone.

The Turks say they will move in - reports from Turkey say troops and equipment are already moving toward the border. The purpose, Turkish leaders say, is to prohibit refugees from flowing into Turkey, keep the Kurds from declaring independence and disarm the Peshmerga.

The Kurds say they will fight the Turks, creating a formula for a war within a war. While the United States and its allies take on the Iraqis, the Kurds say they will take on the Turks.

No one at this Kurdish base or at military headquarters in Dahuk, 30 miles to the west, believes the Peshmerga can stop a Turkish invasion. But with their recent training, the fighters can hurt them, the Kurds contend.

"They will be sorry if they come. Anyone who invades our territory will regret it, especially the Turks," said Gen Aziz Huwas, commander of the troops in training here.

Peshmerga means "those who face death," and that pretty much sums up their history over the decades. The guerrillas have been battered by Iraqi armies several times and, occasionally, killed one another in internecine wars.

Northern Kurdistan is run by two Kurdish political parties, each with its own Peshmerga force of about 30,000 troops: the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

In advance of a possible Turkish arrival, the KDP and PUK have agreed to combine their military command. The forces are armed with rifles, mortars and antitank weapons.