Our first experience of Kirkuk was a high traffic jam/blockade where we sat hemmed in by lorries and other vehicles haphazardly matted together. Uniformed military personnel let us sit there a while before starting to weave their way among the vehicles slapping the sides of cars to get them to stop or move ahead and untangle the many lines of traffic. Later we found out there had been some incident with American soldiers and some fundamental Islamists and hence there was a curfew on the city which lasted until 5pm... so I guess we waited there until 5:00.
This next photo was accidentally shot. You aren't supposted to take photos at checkpoints. This is the actual Kirkuk checkpoint (the little white booth with the three men in unifroms in front). We had no problem entering Kirkuk. It was as though all the guards in Kurdistan had been warned that there was a red Jeep Cherokee of foreigners trying to find their way to Hawler. At some of the checkpoints they even spoke to Dr. Z in Turkish.
This next photo is of nothing - just the road as you enter the opfficial city boundaries.
At this point, it was starting to get dark and we were really driving too fast to shoot any non-blurry photos, but this one is of a statue of someone ?(Kirkukis, please write and let me know who this is)near the center of the city where you start to pass by the citadel, the markets and streets with little street stalls and... cows!
And this last photo is of a typical scene in Kirkuk. Last time I saw the Iraqi National guards dressed in Ninja outfits manning mounted guns on the back of a truck. This time it was a convey of armoured vehicles - American?
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