"The Iraqis fell back 10 to 15 kilometers (six to nine miles) around Guwer overnight," one of the sources told AFP, asking not be identified. "The peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) advanced 10 to 15 kilometers.

"There was no fighting," the source acknowledged, although he added that he still considered the withdrawal as "a defeat for the Iraqis."

Guwer itself was not yet under rebel control, the security source admitted, adding that the nearby villages of Hawera and Shamshula remained in government hands.

Elsewhere, "the Iraqis left their positions in Lajan on Tuesday at about 6:00 pm local time (1600 GMT) and continued their withdrawal during the night.

"The peshmergas advanced at about 10:30 am (0830 GMT) on Wednesday from their last control post at Jumka Bimberiz (on the old demarcation line) to Shamamir," Aval Sanger, a local commander, told AFP.

He said there was no combat, but that Kurdish forces fired missiles on Iraqi vehicles. US forces were on the scene later, according to the same commander.

An AFP correspondent in the Lajan area, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Mosul, witnessed a former Iraqi military camp under the control of the Kurdish rebels.

Another Kurdish military commander, Salim Murad, said the Iraqis abandoned four military camps in Guwer and that many of the civilians in the village fled with the retreating Iraqis.

The Guwer area has come under regular coalition air strikes since the outbreak of war on March 20, leading to several desertions among Iraqi troops, Kurdish officials said.

They said Kurdish villagers expelled from the area in the 1980s were waiting at checkpoints for an all-clear to return to their former homes.

A regional Kurdish official also reported a similar pullback, further north, as Iraqi troops withrew by 15 to 20 kilometres (nine to 13 miles) in the Bardarash region.

Omar Osman said that in their advance towards Bardarash at dawn, a Kurdish rebel was killed after being hit by Iraqi shelling. The advance left the peshmerga 14 kilometres (eight miles) from Mosul, he said.

A sole Iraqi soldier was taken prisoner in the Kurdish advance.

It was the second pullback by forces loyal to President Saddam Hussein around Mosul -- on Monday troops fell back from positions in the Dahuk sector of the front.

Government forces have also staged similar withdrawals around the key northern oil city of Kirkuk to the east, although analysts said they regarded them as largely tactical.

SPACE.WIRE