Kurds avenge a generation of oppression with the bloodless capture of oil-rich Mosul

After 30 years of massacre and expulsion at the hands of Saddam Hussein, the Kurds have in the past two weeks won victories and captured cities and towns that most of them have not seen for a generation.

Kurdish forces yesterday rolled unopposed into Mosul, the northern capital of Iraq, as the Iraqi army and security forces fled. The entire Iraqi V Corps surrendered with its commander. But the extent of the Kurdish conquests are already causing acute embarrassment in Washington, and rage in Ankara, as America tries, with few troops in the north, to rein back its Kurdish allies and avert a Turkish invasion.

After the surprise Kurdish capture of Kirkuk on Thursday, ostensibly to restore order, but in practice an attempt to establish facts on the map before the war ends, America rushed 2,000 of its men to secure the country's largest and most famous oilfields. But they left themselves with few men to stop mass looting in Mosul that began as soon as the Iraqi army and security forces left.

Scores of young men smashed down the doors of the imposing Iraqi Central Bank in the central square of Mosul, emerging minutes later with bundles of newly printed bank-notes in their arms.A young Christian priest, from Mosul's sizeable Christian minority, said: "A few months ago Saddam amnestied everybody in prison in Iraq, so there are plenty of criminals and even convicted murderers able to take advantage of the present situation."

The mood in the centre of Mosul was a curious mixture of a carnival free-for-all and mounting anxiety as people realised the iron rule of President Saddam Hussein had collapsed, but few Kurdish troops and no Americans had entered the city. A small, yellow flag of the Kurdistan Democratic Party floated over one end of the governor's office and the Iraqi flag over the other but inside looters were in control. One man was trying to drag a hideously ornate gold and purple sofa, which had decorated the Iraqi governor's office, down the stairs into the street.

Of the governor and the top Baathist officials in Mosul there was no sign. Nathan Abdul Ahad, a Syrian Catholic teacher, said: "We think they left on a train from the railway station going to Syria the night before the city fell." Lightly armed peshmerga have been edging closer to Mosul for days, advancing as US bombers forced the Iraqi army to retreat from its devastated strong points.

"For three days we have been thinking that the regime was going to collapse here," Mr Ahad said. "We knew everything that was happening because we listened to foreign radio broadcasts in Arabic and watched Kurdistan Television." American tanks, airlifted with difficulty into a mountain airstrip in Kurdistan, were said to be advancing on Mosul last night, but without many infantry. For some in Mosul they cannot arrive too early. Outside the governor's office, an angry man called Amir, a geologist who deserted from the Iraqi army at the start of the war, shouted angrily: "Why do you let people steal the public belongings? Those murderers should be hanged." This seemed excessive. Much of the looters' haul was shabby office chairs and old window frames.

One reason there are no Americans in Mosul is probably the sudden surge into Kirkuk by the peshmerga of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) on Thursday, in breach of agreements with America and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) not to take the city, regarded by Kurds as their true capital. "We had agreed not to go in," said Hoshyar Zebari, a leader of the KDP. "But when the PUK advanced into the city we had to go too. The Americans are angry about what happened."

Within hours 2,000 US troops were rushed in to take over the oilfield. Given that in northern Iraq there are only between 3,000 and 4,000 US troops, mostly from the 173rd Airborne Brigade and special forces, this did not leave many men spare to occupy the city.

Mosul, the most beautiful city in Iraq, has historically always been a centre of Arab nationalism, with many of the officer corps of the Iraqi army born there. Of the one million population of the city some 300,000 are Kurds, almost all on the east bank of the Tigris around the Nabi Yunis mosque, a striking monument built by Saddam Hussein.

The KDP and the Americans may not be welcome in the long term. Amir, the geologist and army deserter, who demanded the US shoot looters, suddenly added: "But the Americans must not enter our houses or interfere with our lives."

We had walked up a narrow street with a drain down the middle in the old city looking for a safe house for the night. When we got back to our car, parked opposite a mosque, our driver, Yusuf, normally taciturn, was looking shaken.

He said that while we were away 100 people who had been praying left the mosque and surrounded his car. They wanted to know what a Kurd from outside Mosul was doing in their city. Yusuf said: "One of them yelled, 'Let's kill him and burn his car.' Wiser counsel prevailed, but some men in the crowd warned him to get out of the neighbourhood.

Kurdish leaders know the scenes of mass looting in Mosul and Kirkuk are damaging their image as responsible members of the Anglo-American coalition. But there is not a lot they can do about it. At a bridge on the Khazar river, blown up by the Iraqi army last week and now hastily repaired, peshmerga trying to turn back potential looters were overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

The KDP peshmerga may also have felt that the last thing they wanted to do was start shooting looters, Arab or Kurd, since their own position in Mosul is somewhat anomalous. The KDP also does not want to provoke the Turks by aggressively taking control. This gives the looters free rein.

The US, as it feeds in more troops, will take control of Mosul and Kirkuk cities. But they will be unable to stop, even if they wanted to, a more long-lasting change in northern Iraq.

One truckload of peshmerga we followed had a pot of yellow paint and stopped at abandoned Arab villages to write KDP on the walls. Some 300,000 Kurdish refugees are beginning to return, promising not to harm Arabs who always lived side-by-side with the Kurds. But many Arabs may feel they are no longer safe in areas falling under the sway of the Kurds.

The writer is the co-author, with Andrew Cockburn, of "Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession".