IRAQ: Kurdish 'men of the night' ply dangerous trade with Iran

They are known as the “men of the night.”

A rugged group sits in front of a liquor store in the northern foothills of Iraq, swapping stories and glasses of whiskey as their horses feed nearby. As dusk approaches, they begin strapping heavy cartons onto their animals for the long journey ahead.

Their cargo: bottles of Absolut vodka, Johnnie Walker and Chivas Regal Scotch whiskey destined for Iran.

Photo: A smuggler loads his horse with a carton of liquor before the long and dangerous trip into Iran. Credit: Asso Ahmed/Los Angeles Times.

IRAQ: Summer music in Kurdistan

Once, Azzadi garden was a military base where tens of Kurdish citizens were executed under the rule of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.

So the Kurdish folk songs wafting on its summer breeze last week had a special meaning for residents who gathered there to welcome the season with music.

"My body and soul moved as I listened to the music, especially in this environment," said Shireen Wihab, 29. "I never felt like this before."

Download  music clip

Download  music clip

Altogether, the Ministry of Culture put on 24 concerts across the three Kurdish provinces. The musicians played late into the night in gardens, hospitals, infirmaries and even jails.

IRAQ: The Kurds struggle, inside a tent city

She was singing in a low voice while sewing a frock for her little girl, Tavga Ahmed, who stood quietly at her side. Home for the girl and her mother, Owaz Jamal, is a tent, one of about 200 erected in a remote mountainous area of Iraq near the Iranian border.

This tent city was hastily established after the latest round of air strikes from Turkish forces sent residents of Rezga, about 35 miles away, fleeing for safety. Most left everything behind — their livestock, their clothes, sometimes even their money. It is a life many have become accustomed to as the tensions between Kurdish separatists operating from bases in the mountains lead to clashes with Turkish troops.

IRAQ: Sufi rituals in Kurdistan

More than 2,000 Kurdish Sufis gathered Saturday at religious shrines in Barzanchi, a village 37 miles east of Sulaymaniya in Kurdistan. The followers of the mystical Islamic sect practiced their rituals. Worshippers beat drums and chanted Allah (God) as dervishes swallowed swords and then cut themselves with the blades.Others ate light bulbs and swallowed fire.

IRAQ: Shooting hoops amid the crossfire

The tallest player on the women's national basketball squad is 5 feet, 7 inches. She and her teammates cannot practice in the nation's capital because of poor security. And in northern Kurdistan, where they are now based, they practice outdoors, often in frigid temperatures.

Nonetheless, what they lack in height they make up for in enthusiasm, said Deb Packwood, an American consultant hired to develop the fledgling team, which aims to raise its international profile and someday compete in the Olympics.

Packwood, who played some college basketball at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas, is working on behalf of the Iraqi Basketball Assn. and the National Olympic Committee, which are seeking to revive a sport that has been crippled by war, inadequate financial backing and the growing challenges women face in a nation that is increasingly religiously conservative.

"The people, they don't like the girls to play," said team member Rajwa Abdul Ahad, 28. "They say, 'No . . . it's bad for you.' But I don't care because basketball, it is in my blood."

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—Kimi Yoshino in Sulaymaniya, Iraq

Photo: Girls practice basketball in Kurdistan, northern Iraq. The Iraqi Basketball Assn. is trying to revive the sport, which has been crippled by war, inadequate financial backing and the challenges facing women in a nation that is increasingly religiously conservative. They've hired Deb Packwood, an American consultant to develop a fledgling team, with hopes, someday, of competing in the Olympics. Credit: Asso Ahmed / For the Times

IRAN: Rebel forces fighting proxy wars in Iraq

A series of conflicts with insurgent groups along Iran's borders may be impelling Tehran to back its own allies in Iraq in what it regards as a proxy war with the U.S., according to security experts and officials in the U.S., Iran and Iraq.

Dozens of Iranian officials, members of the security forces and insurgents belonging to Kurdish, Arab Iranian and Baluch groups have died in the fighting in recent years. It now appears to be heating up once again after an unusually cold and snowy winter.

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—Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: A Kurdish rebel from Pejak inspects a crater left behind by an alleged Iranian artillery attack near a mountain encampment in Qandil in northern Iraq on April 13. The group threatened to launch bomb attacks inside Iran. Credit: SHWAN MOHAMMED / AFP

IRAQ: Celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year, in the Kurdish hills

Armed with picnic baskets and dressed in their brightest holiday finery, Iraqi Kurds headed into the hills Friday to celebrate a cherished holiday that coincides with the first day of spring.

There was barely an inch to spare around Lake Dukan, north of the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniya, where families gathered by the thousands to grill meat, sing folk songs and dance a traditional line dance called the dabka.

"This year is different," said Osman Ahmed, who was walking around the lake with his new wife. "Iraq in general has become more secure recently and this adds to our joy."

IRAQ: No hunting allowed

The security chief along the gorgeous and mountainous stretch of the Iraq-Turkey border was a genial man. He welcomed us into his office  and invited us to sit down by his desk. He served us tea, and then fed us a line of bull.

I pressed him about the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, the Kurdish militant group that has been attacking Turkish soldiers. Was it true, as we'd heard, that the fighters came to this town, Mergasur, for medical treatment? Do they ever visit the town's hospital? Do any of the nonprofit organizations in town or villagers give them support?

He paused thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "You know," he said, "a lot of things that are allowed in other parts of Iraqi Kurdistan aren't allowed here. Cutting down trees, for example. If you cut down a tree, I'll put you in jail for two months."

IRAQ: Not without her daughter

You know the story. A Middle Eastern man marries an American woman. They have a daughter, the marriage falls apart and he swipes the kid and takes her back to the old country.

But scholar Denise Natali, 44, adds a new twist to the story. She married a man from the Middle East. They moved to Paris, but it's she who brought her 7-year-old daughter to the region, to pursue a job at the newly founded University of Kurdistan-Hawler in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil.

Her husband, a successful Paris restaurateur and an ethnic Kurd from Turkey, is packing up his business and following his wife back to the Middle East, albeit skeptically.

IRAQ: Man on the hilltop

With yellowed fingers, the aging Kurdish warrior lights another cigarette and speaks his mind.

For decades Nawshirwan Mustafa fought for Kurdish autonomy against the tyranny of Baghdad. The steely-eyed intellectual turned guerrilla commander helped secretly organize the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein that challenged Baghdad's rule in the north and led to the establishment of the Kurdish autonomous region.

Now at 63 he's embarked on a new crusade: against his fellow Kurdish warriors, whom he accuses of corruption and complacency.

"There is no separation of the political parties from the government," he says. "There's no transparency. There's cronyism and nepotism in the appointment of high officials."