Union-Tribune

April 2, 2003

In verdant hills, Kurds carry away the corpses

By MARCUS STERN
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

SARGET, Iraq – Amid a pastoral springtime setting, old Kurdish men with stretchers yesterday carried the bodies of Islamic "holy warriors" one by one down narrow mountain trails and across swiftly flowing streams to be dumped in the bed of a battered pickup and hauled away.

At the same time, young Kurdish fighters moved on foot higher into the mountains, past waterfalls and pooled spring water, to pursue the remnants of the Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Islam, which allegedly has ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

The action yesterday was a mop-up operation after decisive fighting Friday and Saturday in which nearly 700 Ansar fighters were routed after a two-year occupation of the fertile valley below.

It offered a graphic reminder of how devastating war can be, especially for the vanquished. The grisly sight of the corpses drove home the finality, indignity and anonymity of battlefield deaths.

The battle deaths were set against the springtime backdrop of fresh fields of wildflowers with calves, lambs and baby goats.

As small arms and mortar fire echoed through the canyon yesterday morning, women gathered solemnly near the base of the mountain where the bodies were being collected.

They were mothers and wives of local Ansar fighters who had come to wait quietly to see if their sons or husbands were among the dead. Their presence was a further reminder that even the "enemy" leave gaping holes in families after they are gone.

The fighting came five days after a task force of U.S. special forces and Kurdish fighters routed the Ansar guerrillas from this valley. It continued even as members of the special forces and Kurdish peshmergas were holding a news conference in nearby Halabjah to explain how they had overwhelmed the Ansar fighters with a six-pronged attack.

Not far away, a fresh body lay among the yellow wildflowers and snowcapped peaks looming over the village of Sarget. It was that of a Ansar survivor, a Saudi, who had tried to sneak up on a group of peshmergas yesterday.

When the peshmergas spotted him, he told them he was an Iraqi. They told him to place his rifle at his feet and he appeared to be complying, lowering himself and the rifle. But just before his Kalashnikov touched the ground, he raised it and began firing.

They returned fire, killing him.

A wounded peshmerga was taken to the hospital.

The Ansar fighter's body lay in a tableau as picturesque as any Alpine setting.

Meanwhile, the number of bodies in the back of the pickup had reached six. Four men headed back up the mountain to retrieve another body. It lay alongside a pool of spring water, the back of the fighter blown away.

The area, Hama Shwana, is named for the many springs that pool here beneath waterfalls.

The men grabbed handfuls of grass to use as gloves to lift the body onto the stretcher.

One man levered the body with a stick.

Finally, they got the remains on the stretcher, a dark wool blanket stretched between two rough-hewn poles. The blanket had bloodstains, as did the trail itself. The four men almost dropped the body into the rushing stream as they struggled to cross it.

Up the trail, a ninth body lay gathering flies next to a fig tree.

Even farther up, a tenth.

The group of Ansar fighters killed in this canyon all appeared to be Arabs. They had traveled to this region with other Islamic warriors of various nationalities from Afghanistan, where they had trained and fought together.

They first appeared here shortly before Sept. 11, 2001, and their numbers increased rapidly after the United States launched an attack on terrorism in Afghanistan in October 2001. They were attempting to impose a strict religious regime on the community here similar to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The old Kurdish men, in their balloon pants, tennis shoes and headdresses, retrieved the eighth and ninth bodies from the canyon. The tenth would have to wait for today.

Meanwhile, the shelling and rifle fire continued higher in the mountain and the valley beyond. The fleeing Ansar fighters were pressed up against the mountainous border with Iran. It was unclear how many were left and whether they would flee to Iran or stand and fight.

A hot topic among the villagers was whether the surviving Ansar fighters would return.

"If Iran helps them, they will be back," said Hamasadq Hamahasam, 56. "But if Iran doesn't let them cross the border, they will be trapped and have to fight.

"And they will all die."