Word: mam
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...peshmerga whooped from their hilltop trenches that hours before had been occupied by the Iraqis being bombed. "This attack is a sacred thing," said Ismael Mohammed. He was fighting to return to the home in Kirkuk he had been driven out of seven years before. Kurdish commander Mam Rostam, a nom de guerre meaning Uncle Rostam, reveled in the momentum of the push on Kirkuk. "My soul is returning," he told his staff in the bunker...
Where did they go? Mam Rostam, the Kurdish Peshmerga commander on the Chamchamal front, was almost levitating with delight. A 17-mile stretch of the Iraqi front line near this town in northeast Iraq had, on Thursday afternoon, evaporated. Some 3,000 Iraqi troops left in the space of an hour, taking with them everything except some mortars and small arms, and pulling back 11 miles...
...Nicely done, he admitted, though he seemed unsure just why they had done it. As journalists clambered through Iraqi bunkers and locals helped themselves to the more useful bits of the trench reinforcements, Mam Rostam headed back to headquarters. So did I, where I found him again, still ebullient, chain smoking and complaining of a sore throat, but happy to talk. The withdrawal, the Kurdish commander said, was likely to set off a panic when the next Iraqi line suddenly sees 3,000 of their own put it in reverse. They'll keep retreating, he predicted...
...American forces?" He avoided the question, as if he did not quite understand what I was talking about. An aide whispered something, and Mam Rostam said he was tired and a little hungry. He swept out of the courtyard with his entourage, and the journalists outside the compound dispersed. His mood change seemed suspicious, so I decided to spend the night in my car, parked within the compound. About 15 minutes later Mam Rostam swept back in followed by a gleaming Mercedes, a Land Cruiser and another luxury vehicle, each accompanied by 10 to 15 bodyguards. The Patriotic Union...
...Peshmerga ardor. Toward the end of the meeting, some of the Peshmerga military cadre were doing precisely that-circulating in the yard hugging the most passionate fighters, whispering orders and telling jokes. Later, when most of the cars (but not the Special Forces) had left, I asked to see Mam Rostam. "Come back tomorrow," I was told. "He seems to have lost his voice...