The Iraqi troops abandoned the position near the Kurdish city of Chamchamal, about 35 kilometers from Kirkuk, after the ferocious US-British bombings to pave the war for paratroopers' landing, the report said.

Kurdish guerrilla fighters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan reportedly immediately seized the abandoned Iraqi position guarding the road to the strategic oil center of Kirkuk.

More than 1,000 US paratroops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade parachuted in northern Iraq overnight and have secured the Harir airport in their bid to set up the northern front for an imminent decisive battle for the control of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

The airport will provide crucial supplies and support personnel that will be arriving in the coming days.

Providing cover for the airdrop, three waves of bombings were launched Thursday by US-British warplanes which targeted Iraqi ground troops and artillery batteries in northern Iraq.

The northern front is regarded as crucial in the expected encirclement of Baghdad, where Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has deployed most of its elite troops and military equipment in attempt to repel the invading forces.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2003)