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Arab volunteers fight on

STAR DESK
US-led invading forces have not yet won the Iraq war, as a heavy gun battle continued yesterday around a Baghdad mosque where President Saddam Hussein was rumoured to be hiding.
A US marine was killed and more than 20 were injured in the four-hour firefight that began at about 9.30am Iraqi time (0630 BST).
Anglo-American soldiers came under rocket-propelled grenade,
mortar and AK-47 fire from what appeared to be a unit of Republican Guards as they attempted to search the Imam al-Adham mosque, which is beside the Tigris in the Aadhamiya district of northwest Baghdad.
Non-Iraqi Arab volunteer fighters were in control of several streets in the Aadhamiya district, where the mosque is located, and also in the nearby Waziriya district. A Reuters correspondent saw Arab fighters manning checkpoints and patrol
SEE PAGE 11 COL 1 FROM PAGE 1 ling the area.
The Arab fighters were also out in force on the streets of the Mansur district west of the Tigris river close to the Iraqi intelligence service headquarters.
US planes swooped overhead, hitting targets in areas under Arab control. But US troops were nowhere to be seen in Mansur.
There was also no sign of Iraqi forces. Abandoned Iraqi artillery pieces and missile launchers could be seen in the streets. The Arab fighters appeared to be putting up the main resistance to US troops in the city.
Thousands of "Mujahideen" volunteers from across the Arab world are thought to be in Iraq. Ahead of the war, an audio-tape believed to be from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden exhorted Muslims to fight US forces.
In southwest Baghdad, a Reuters cameraman saw 21 bodies of what appeared to be Iraqi soldiers and civilians. People in the area said there had been heavy fighting earlier and that US soldiers had already removed many more bodies.
Kurds take Kirkuk
Kurdish peshmerga fighters took control of the northern oilrich city of Kirkuk yesterday. Hundreds of fighters from the Kurdish autonomous area, who have been supported by US Special Forces, drove through an industrial neighbourhood into a city that they have long dreamed of regaining.
But a senior diplomat at the Turkish foreign ministry told AFP that any attempt by Iraqi Kurdish forces to take permanent control of the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk would be unacceptable.
There was shooting on the northwest edge of the city, but the oil wells appeared to be undamaged.
The fall of Kirkuk brought a swift response from Turkey, which fears that the city could be used by the Kurds as a base from which to build a Kurdish state. Abdullah Gul, Turkey's foreign minister, was reported to have said that the peshmerga fighters could not stay in Kirkuk and added that 'whatever is necessary will be done."
A US military official said that Special Forces were attempting to get an American presence into the city "in the interest of regional stability".
More than 100 vehicles, from pickup trucks to a garbage truck laden with Kurdish fighters, drove thought the streets.
The cars and trucks flew the flags of the two major political parties who rule the two sectors of the autonomous region; yellow for the Kurdistan Democratic Party and green for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Advance on Tikrit and Mosul
Kurdish political officials yesterday said another northern town, Khanaqin, had fallen to its forces and persmerga fighters were now moving towards Mosul, Iraq's third city. The Dubai-based al-Arabiya television station, quoting its correspondent on a peak overlooking the city, reported US air strikes on Iraqi frontlines.
Reuters added that a convoy of US Abrams tanks and armoured personnel carriers are now rolling towards Mosul on the road from Irbil, the largest city in Kurdish-ruled northern Iraq.
Captain Thorp said elements of the Republican Guard were gathering around Mosul and Tikrit, Saddam's birthplace.