Kurd Rebels Move Toward Irbil

By WAIEL FALEH Associated Press Writer Monday, October 14, 1996 5:01 pm EDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A Kurdish faction claimed new gains Monday in a push through northern Iraq, and the U.S. and Iraqi governments were put in the curious position of agreeing on something: The feuding Kurds should settle their differences to keep the conflict from spreading.

The new fighting is in the same area where Iraqi troops intervened in late August, triggering an American missile attack on Saddam Hussein's forces in southern Iraq. In the latest battles, the Kurdish fighters who seized large swaths of territory with Iraqi backing now appear to be losing ground.

Iraq, which claims Iran is backing one Kurdish faction, has warned Iran to keep out of the latest fighting. The United States says both Iraq and Iran should stay out of the new fighting.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is battling a Kurdish faction allied with Saddam, said Monday that it was marching closer to Irbil, northern Iraq's principal city. However, there was no indication that PUK fighters planned an assault on the city -- which is fortified by Iraqi tanks -- or that Iraq was planning to intercede.

On Sunday, PUK rebels seized the key city of Sulaymaniyah, but the group's leader, Jalal Talabani, said he was reluctant to take on Saddam's powerful military.

``We have no plans at present to retake Irbil because it's surrounded by Iraqi tanks,'' Talabani was quoted as telling the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat on Sunday.

The rival Kurdistan Democratic Party captured Irbil with the help of Saddam's army Aug. 31 and went on to seize virtually the entire Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Iraq's assistance prompted the United States to retaliate with cruise missiles.

Iraq has urged the two Kurdish groups to resolve their problems through talks and sternly warned the advancing faction against ``dealing with foreign powers,'' a reference to the PUK's ties to Iran.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials spoke to both Kurdish factions, also urging them to end the fighting.

``We see no constructive role for either Iraq or Iran in this conflict,'' White House spokesman David Johnson said.

A statement by Talabani's rebels, faxed to The Associated Press on Monday, said they routed their Iraqi-backed rivals from six districts between Sulaymaniyah and Irbil.

The statement also said PUK forces entered the town of Halabja, east of Sulaymaniyah, and rebuffed a major KDP attack.

The KDP, for its part, claimed Iran had ``entered the war'' and that thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, backed by artillery, had pushed through the border into Iraq.

KDP official Sami Abdurrahman claimed Monday that ``there has been open Iranian aggression on our country,'' involving more than 15,000 Revolutionary Guards who crossed the border into Iraq.

The PUK denied the allegation, as did the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Iranian government spokesman Mahmoud Mohammadi said the claim was meant to ``pacify international forums regarding (KDP leader Massoud) Barzani's collaboration with the Iraqi army.''

The Iraqi government said it was prepared to invite all parties to peace talks in the capital, Baghdad.

The PUK and KDP have long been at loggerheads. The KDP accuses the PUK of maintaining close links with Persian Iran, Iraq's non-Arab neighbor, while the KDP favors a more conciliatory approach with the Iraqi government in resolving Kurdish demands for autonomy.

Western countries created the northern safe area to protect the Kurds from Saddam's military after the 1991 Persian Gulf War; since then, the two groups have mostly quarreled with each other.

The United States mediated a cease-fire last year, but it collapsed Aug. 17.

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a British envoy said Britain would hold talks between the two Kurdish factions. Jeremy Hanley, minister of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs, said London also would urge the factions not to cooperate with Saddam's government.

Anti-Baghdad Kurds capture towns in north Iraq

ANKARA (Oct 14, 1996 09:13 a.m. EDT) - Kurdish fighters opposed to the Baghdad government gained more territory in northern Iraq on Monday, but their leader said his forces would not try to capture Arbil, administrative centre of Iraqi Kurdistan.

As fighting flared in the area, officials from the pro-Baghdad Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) stopped over in Turkey, bound for Washington in search of diplomatic backing against what the group says is Iranian support for its rival militia, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

"We will discuss that there," senior KDP official Sami Abdurrahman told Reuters. "Up until now, the U.S. government have shown no reaction towards the Iranian aggression," he said.

Abdurrahman, Kurdish chieftain Massoud Barzani's right-hand man, heads a delegation due to meet State Department officials on Wednesday.

He accused Iran of sending around 13,000 Revolutionary Guards, arms and ammunition into northern Iraq to lead the PUK against his militia.

"(PUK chief Jalal) Talabani is just a fig leaf for the Iranian aggression. They are using very, very heavy fire and the Iranians are spearheading the attack," Abdurrahman said.

But Iran denied on Monday that its troops were backing PUK forces.

Iran's Foreign ministry spokesman Mahmoud Mohammadi said the charges were raised as a reaction to "protests by international bodies because of the collaboration of Barzani with the Iraqi army in suppressing the defenceless Kurdish people and turning them into refugees."

U.N. sources said the PUK recaptured two more towns in northern Iraq after taking the mountainous region's biggest city Sulaimaniya from Barzani's group on Sunday.

The PUK said in a statement it had also taken over other Kurdish towns, including Halabja near the Iranian border. Halabja was made infamous by an Iraqi government gas attack in 1988 in which around 5,000 people, mostly civilians, died.

Washington, the protector of Iraq's Kurds from Baghdad since 1991, was snubbed by Barzani's group when he joined Iraqi tanks and troops to take the city of Arbil from Talabani in August.

The United States launched missiles on southern Iraq in response but had to abandon its military, intelligence and aid operations in the north in the face of Baghdad's increased influence there.

Western diplomats say Washington has not closed the door on Barzani and is worried about possible Iranian involvement in north Iraq.

"There has been a bit of a change of wind north Iraq," a diplomat said. "There is still a need to assess where we are going and how we are doing."

President Saddam Hussein's administration has called on both the Kurdish groups to stay away from outside powers and reconcile their differences under Baghdad's auspices.

Talabani said his forces would not follow up the capture of Sulaimaniya with a push against Arbil.

"We don't have a plan now to do that, because the city is surrounded by Iraqi tanks," he said in an interview with the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat.

"We leave Arbil to its people," he said. Talabani said the Iraqi army "intervened today (Sunday) by launching artillery shelling on Chamchamal, then it stopped."

U.N. sources said Talabani's guerrillas had recaptured the towns of Degala and Koi Sanjaq after taking control over the strategic Dokan Dam area, site of a major hydroelectirc power project.

"They (PUK rebels) seem to be advancing. They are in Degala and Koi Sanjaq. Fighting is continuing and both sides are using artillery and rocket launchers," one U.N. official told Reuters in Baghdad by telephone from Arbil.