Iraqi soldiers and tanks are massing on the border of Kurdistan in a warning to Kurdish leaders not to ally themselves with America against President Saddam Hussein. The CIA was unable to give the guarantee, says The Washington Post. The Kurds refused to allow the bases, but their consideration of such a move appears to have made President Saddam nervous.The Kurds control the only territory in Iraq not under the authority of the Iraqi leader. They have tried to keep on good terms with the Iraqi government and with Washington, but if President George Bush is determined to overthrow the Iraqi leader they want to be on the winning side.The visit to Virginia by Mr Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party ruling western Kurdistan, and Mr Talabani, who controls the east, was confirmed yesterday by Mahmoud Othman, a veteran Kurdish leader, in an interview with Radio Free Iraq.Iraqi forces have moved forward on a broad front south of the unofficial border with Kurdistan, sources in the area say. The troops are unlikely to attack but their presence is a clear warning by Baghdad that it will not allow Kurdistan to become a haven for its enemies.The three main Kurdish cities, Arbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk, are within a couple of hours’ tank-drive from the Iraqi front line and vulnerable to long-range artillery fire. They could not be defended for long by Kurdish light infantry.In the past few months, the Kurdish leaders have been toying with the idea of playing a role against President Saddam similar to that of the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the Kurdish leaders know they are militarily inferior to the Iraqi army, and probably would not commit themselves to Washington unless there were American ground forces to protect them.The Iraqi government is convinced America will eventually try to overthrow it, and the Iraqi security forces will try to crush any rebellion before it gathers pace.

Iraqi checkpoints and military posts have been set up on roads south from Baghdad to Basra, the area that was the heart of the abortive Shia rebellion of 1991.Saddam’s security officers are everywhere in the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala on the Euphrates river, recent visitors say. In Baghdad last week, the dictator ordered government ministers, officials and senior advisers to report for training with the Kalashnikov automatic assault rifle.The Iraqi leader wants to make clear he will crush mercilessly any US-backed rebellion, but he is unlikely to invade Kurdistan, except as a last resort. Such an attack, he reasons, could give America and Britain the pretext for a new bombing offensive. For the same reason, Iraqi negotiators have shown greater flexibility in talks with the United Nations about the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq They were withdrawn in December 1998..

The UN Security Council approved a revised sanctions regime for Iraq yesterday that is designed to ease the flow of humanitarian goods into the country and blunt criticism that western governments have unnecessarily contributed to the suffering of the Iraqi population. The last teams of inspectors were removed from Iraq just before a US-UK bombing campaign in December 1998 and have not been allowed back.Under the new arrangement, Iraqi can freely import all goods except those included on a special list of items that are still considered sensitive. The list, which forms part of yesterday’s resolution, was only finalised after months of painstaking negotiations, that pitted Russia, which is generally sympathetic towards Baghdad, against the Americans and the British.Mr Al-Douri decried the so-called goods review list, saying it would “prevent any development of the Iraqi economy for the future” by still having the effect of blocking imports of agricultural, electrical and sanitation equipment. “This is a new harassment of the Iraqi people,” he said.The Council vote was delayed for 24 hours after Syria attempted to attach last-minute amendments, including one that stressed Iraq’s right to self-defence – an apparent reference to Washington’s recent warnings that it may launch military strikes to oust Saddam. In the end, however, Syria decided to join the consensus approving the plan.It meant that yesterday’s decision gave the Council the chance to speak with one voice on the question of Iraq. For years, the veto-wielding players have been plagued by divisions, with Britain and American leading hardliners and France, Russia and China taking a more emollient approach towards Baghdad.. Passengers on the bus from the Himalayan hill station of Kulu assumed that the three men in combat fatigues who boarded six miles from the Pakistan border were Indian soldiers.

When the bus stopped outside an army base and the men ordered the passengers to stand, they assumed it was a routine search But then the men opened fire, killing seven. But then the men opened fire, killing seven.
Armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and hand grenades, they then blasted their way into the camp, six miles south of the city of Jammu in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and headed for the soldiers’ residential quarters. By the time soldiers shot them dead, at least 30 people had been killed including several women and 10 children. Another 48 were injured.Yesterday’s terrorist attack was the worst in Kashmir since last September, and coincided with a visit to India by Christina Rocca, an American assistant secretary of state who is in the region on a mission to reduce tensions that have brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war since a suicide attack on the Indian parliament last December.Ms Rocca said her government “unequivocally condemned the attack. It is just this type of barbarism that the war on terrorism is determined to stop,” she told a press conference in Delhi.Indian government sour-ces were quick to blame the attack on Pakistan-based militant groups.