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Part IV: Ahmad Returns Home to Mosul

American troops head for Mosul two days after the city fell. (Photo: M. Goldfarb)

Baghdad had fallen. The regime was crumbling. But in Northern Iraq, it clung on. With only a handful of Special Forces troops and the sensitivities of the Turkish government about Kurdish power to consider, American commanders took a go-slow approach to seizing Kirkuk and Mosul. But like Saddam's statue in Baghdad, once the regime in the North was 80 percent toppled, the people couldn't be stopped from destroying what was left.

First Mahmour, midway between Kirkuk and Mosul fell. We drove there immediately, past where the friendly fire incident took place. Only a few scorch marks on the road gave a hint of what had happened. We drove by the ruined tanks the Special Forces had been torching. We drove around craters created by B-52 strikes, past a smoldering concrete plant and into Mahmour. Mahmour, a Kurdish city, was heavily Arabized by Saddam. He transplanted many Arab families from Iraq's south here to dilute the Kurdish influence. In the night, when the Army fled, so had most of the transplanted Arab families.

We drove around the residential neighborhoods which were surprisingly empty. Then came across a group of about 10 people: men, women and children, who flagged us down. It was the al-Sultan family. We went through a gate into a dusty courtyard to a two-room cinderblock house. Two Kurdish families lived here, one in each room. The Kurds do not have small families. The Sultan's are no exception. Eleven people lived in this one room which couldn't have been more than 10 by 12 feet. Along two sides of it were bags of rice from the World Food Program stacked three or four feet high which reduced the floor space even more.

Ahmad at the house of his oldest daughter, Sana'a, in Mosul. (Photo: M. Goldfarb)

Mahmour gave a glimpse into the way the regime had degraded living standards in Iraq.

We returned to the center of town where PUK Peshmerga were setting up headquarters. Ahmad was reliving the fall of Saddam's statue and letting the realization that he would be going home to Mosul sink in.

As we drove out of the town we saw a massive column of smoke coming from the direction of Kirkuk and we knew that city had fallen. It would be a matter of days before Ahmad could return without fear to Mosul.

In reality it took only 24 hours before the Saddam's forces ran away from Mosul without firing a shot.

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