Saddam Wages Terror Campain In Kurdistan

LONDON [MENL] 
Aug 17, 2001

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has waged a terror campaign in the Kurdish autonomous
zone of northern Iraq. 

Kurdish sources said Saddam's agents have placed several car bombs in Kurdistan over the
last three weeks. The sources said Saddam's agents have also terrorized Kurdish families in
the area of Sulemaniya. 
So far, three car bombs were found in the area of Suran. The sources said Kurdish
authorities have stepped up security measures. 

Saddam's effort comes as the Kurds appear to be thriving in the absence of Baghdad's
control. Both Iran and Turkey have launched projects in Kurdistan with Kurdish partners. 

The Kurdish region is said to receive nearly $90 million month in United Nations funding
that stems from the Iraqi oil-for-food program. Much of the money has gone into
infrastructure projects. 

Turkey has been trying to increase its role in Kurdistan amid government concerns that a de
factor state has been established. The government in Ankara sees such a state as a threat to
Ankara and a source of insurgency by Turkey's large Kurdish minority. 

The Saddam regime has also increased support to the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, in a
campaign to undermine the cooperation between the two Kurdish movements that share
control of northern Iraq. 

In Washington, the Bush administration said the United States is able to repel any attack by
Saddam's forces on either the Kurds in the north or the Shi'ites in the south. But they said
British or U.S. warplanes are limited in their capability and can stop only a large-scale
military invasion by Baghdad. 

"Our ability to preclude him from doing that is not perfect," Pentagon spokesman Craig
Quigley said. "But what we are able to do is to preclude him massing military forces. Now,
whether that would be aircraft, armor, large formations of infantry, to move in a very
large-scale military movement into either the south or the north, that we can see, that we can
stop. There are other elements of that -- police, things of that nature -- that are not done in
such a large organized way, that clearly, the no-fly zone -- coalition patrols over the no-fly
zone do not have an impact." 

Last week, U.S. F-16 warplanes were reported to have entered Syrian air space during a
patrol of the no-fly zone in northern Iraq. U.S. officials said the F-16 intrusion, which lasted
23 minutes, was accidental and did not encounter Syrian interception efforts. 
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