On Wednesday evening, an AFP correspondent saw that Iraqi troops had relinquished a military position near the town of Kilak, which is located some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Mosul, on the demarcation line between Kurdish- and government-controlled territories.

"The Iraqis started slowly backing off in the afternoon. They left just one guard to man the position. Then they withdrew completely and we moved forward," said Omar Ismail, a member of the local security forces.

Another security official, Ahmad Khidir, said the Iraqi forces loyal to Saddam Hussein had pulled back seven or eight kilometres (5 miles) while the peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) advanced by two kilometres (1.2 miles) on the hill marking the demarcation line.

The peshmerga took over the position and were hoping to advance beyond the hills by Thursday to the two bridges leading to the village of Khazer, where the Iraqi forces have an important base, the sources said.

Wednesday night, Kurdish military sources said Iraqi government forces had left positions in two other areas to the south and retreated several miles towards Mosul.

"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.

"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 (1500 GMT) and continued their withdrawal during the night.

"The peshmergas advanced at about 10:30 am (0730 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 (30 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.

"We attacked them during the change of the guard," said Khidir Sultan, a 35-year-old Kurdish fighter.

Iraqi troops first withdrew to the nearby village of Qandilan before retreating further under heavy bombardment by coalition jets, witnesses said.

Four Iraqi officers who slipped back into Qandilan on Wednesday with explosives were arrested by the Kurdish rebels before they could blow up a crucial bridge, some peshmergas told AFP.

It was the second wave of pullbacks by loyalist forces 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