Kurdish Rebels Claim to Have Retaken Several Towns October 12, 1996 6:30 pm EDT (22:30 GMT)

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -- Kurdish rebels who were routed from northern Iraq by government-supported rivals last month said Saturday that they have recaptured several towns in the north.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Nicosia, said its fighters had taken control of Panjwin, Mawat, Chuwartah and other towns near the Iraq-Iran border, about 200 miles north of the capital of Baghdad.

The PUK said it had wrested control of the towns from the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party confirmed the fighting in a statement, saying PUK fighters backed by Iranian troops and artillery crossed into northern Iraq on Friday.

It said the fighting continued Saturday morning and that the KDP had to evacuate Panjwin under heavy Iranian artillery and rocket shelling.

The KDP also said its forces had fought off a PUK attack at Qala Diza. The statement, also faxed to The AP, made no mention of Mawat or Chuwartah.

The PUK claimed more than 73 KDP fighters had been killed. It did not say whether it had suffered any casualties itself.

The two rival factions have inhabited the Kurdish ``safe haven'' in northern Iraq that is protected by U.S. forces. The enclave was set up in 1991 to protect the Kurds after a failed rebellion against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

On Aug. 30, Saddam sent forces into the region to assist the KDP, claiming that Iran had backed a PUK offensive.

The United States responded to the incursion with cruise-missile attacks on air-defense installations in southern Iraq on Sept. 3 and 4.

The KDP's statement Saturday accused Iran of trying to destabilize the border areas after a period of calm which followed the KDP triumph.

``We appeal to the Iranian government to stop its interference in the affairs of the Muslim and peaceful Kurdish people and not to push matters towards escalation,'' the statement said

Kurdish rebels claim they retook several towns

NICOSIA, Cyprus (Oct 12, 1996 10:55 a.m. EDT) -- Kurdish rebels claimed today that they have recaptured several towns in northern Iraq, six weeks after they were defeated by a rival Kurdish faction allied to Saddam Hussein.

There was no independent confirmation of the claim by Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which came in a statement faxed to The Associated Press.

The group said its fighters recaptured several towns including Panjwin, Mawat and Chuwartah, wresting control from the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani.

The towns are arrayed in an arc about 30 miles northeast of the city of Sulaymaniyah, which is 170 miles north of Baghdad.

Barzani's forces suffered more than 70 deaths, the rival group claimed.

There was no immediate reaction to the PUK's claims either from the Baghdad government or from its Kurdish allies of the KDP, which took control of the region with Iraqi help in an offensive that began Aug. 30.

Saddam's intervention on behalf of his favored faction in northern Iraq took his forces into a Kurdish safe haven, imposed by international leaders after the Persian Gulf war.

The United States retaliated with cruise missile attacks on air-defense installations in southern Iraq.