Timeline of the Kurds 2003

June 12, 2003

• In Dokan[?], Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leaders set up a six-member committee to map out a plan for unification.

April 10, 2003

• U.S. Green Berets and Kurdish fighters enter the city of Kirkuk in Iraq with little resistance. Turkey and U.S., in separate statements, say they will not allow the Kurds to occupy the city. [1] (http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200341121717.htm), [2] (http://www.canada.com/news/story.asp?id=45D53827-FA52-4452-9E87-7DF9276D26B9)

April 6, 2003

• In a friendly fire incident, U.S. warplanes struck a convoy of allied Kurdish fighters and U.S. Special Forces during a battle in northern Afghanistan. At least 18 people are killed and more than 45 wounded, including senior Kurdish commanders.

March 21, 2003

• The arrest of Ansar al-Islam is ordered by Økokrim, a Norwegian law enforcement agency, to ensure he does not leave Norway while accusations that he had threatened terrorist attacks were investigated.

March 12, 2003

• The European Court of Human Rights rules that the Turkish trial of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan was not fair.

February 25, 2003

• Both major parties of Kurdistan, an autonomous region in Northern Iraq, vow to fight Turkish troops if they enter Kurdistan to capture Mosul or interfere in Kurdish self-rule. Between them the two parties can mobilize up to 80,000 guerillas - most likely no match for the modern Turkish army, but a severe blow to the unity of U.S. allies on the Northern front expected in the U.S. plan to invade Iraq.

January 4, 2003

• U.S. plan to invade Iraq: Turkey's Milliyet[?] newspaper published a picture showing tanks at an airstrip that it said was the disused Bamerni air base[?] inside Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. If this report is true, this may be the first evidence of a NATO military presence in Iraq. [3] (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=1992108)