Unease in one freed Iraqi city

Painted in classical Arabic on the walls on each side of the gubernatorial desk is a quote by Saddam Hussein. Only the Iraqi president's name is missing, swiftly hacked away by residents who only 48 hours ago were under his control.

After a Saturday night battle with Kurdish and US forces, the Iraqi military retreated from this town of 12,000, cracking like plaster beneath the picks of people keen to erase the dictator's name from the wall - and his rule from their lives.

"The people were so angry, they could have done that with their bare hands," says Basil Joqi Darwish, who took over as governor as soon as the Iraqi military and its affiliated political bosses from Hussein's Baath Party retreated toward Mosul, 18 miles south of here.

The arrival of Kurdish fighters called pesh merga along with leaders of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) from the autonomous zone, imposed a modicum of order on Sheikhan, the largest northern town to be "liberated." That and sheer fear of what comes next has helped avert the sort of chaos and looting racking Basra in southern Iraq.

While some Kurdish cities have erupted in jubilation at the presence of allied forces, there was no celebrating on the streets here. Rather, people expressed a sense of uncertainty about the future and a sadness for the war's civilian casualties. Residents are still afraid to give their last names for fear that Mr. Hussein could be back.

"Nobody here is celebrating because the liberation is not complete. We will celebrate when all of Iraq is celebrating ... when we can be 100 percent certain that Saddam Hussein is dead," says Marwan, a young man who, like many here, says the only income to be made in recent years has been from smuggling goods between Iraqi-controlled oil-rich city of Mosul and the nearby autonomous Kurdish territory his town has just joined.

People here are loath to discuss another important source of economic survival: working as jash, the pro-Hussein Kurdish militia cultivated by Baghdad. The jash - a derogatory Kurdish term meaning donkeys - were paid by Hussein to fight against mainstream Kurdish groups such as the KDP.

On any map of the past 30 years, Sheikhan appears as Ain Sifni - the Arabic name the Baath Party gave it when it came to power. The name Sheikhan, like the majority of residents, is Kurdish. Before the war began, Baath Party loyalists - Arabs whom Hussein moved here from other parts of Iraq - entreated every man in town to join in the fight against the invaders. "They asked us every day, and we promised the Baath Party that we would help resist. But none of us did," says Thear Khidir Aidu, a father of four who says that the worst part of life under the Iraqi regime was his mandatory military service.

Issa Sindi, a sun-baked pesh merga commander who was involved in capturing the town, says the battle only lasted a couple of hours. "They didn't have faith in what they were fighting for," he says. "The resistance was not as large as we expected."

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