October 15, 1996

U.S., Warily Eyeing Iraq, Urges Warring Kurds to Make Peace

By STEVEN ERLANGER

ASHINGTON -- Exasperated U.S. officials, trying to forestall another confrontation with Saddam Hussein less than a month before the presidential election, are trying to push warring Kurdish factions into a cease-fire and back to the negotiating table after a new shift in the balance of power in northern Iraq.

U.S. officials are warily monitoring a new flash of fighting in northern Iraq between the resurgent Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which has some backing from Iran, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which called on the Iraqi Army for help in August as it conquered a large swath of Kurdish territory but is now in retreat.

Iraq's massing of troops at that time in the northern no-flight zone imposed by the United States and its allies in turn led to U.S. air attacks on Iraq.

U.S. officials said Monday that they had seen little evidence of active involvement in the latest skirmishes by Iraqi or Iranian forces.

The U.S. position is to urge restraint on both sides, to press for a cease-fire and to warn Iraq and Iran to keep out of the fighting. The Americans, who will hold talks here this week with representatives of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, are urging both Kurdish sides "to stop turning their guns on each other and provide some stability in northern Iraq," said Nicholas Burns, the State Department spokesman.

Iraq's incursion into an area designated to protect the Kurds prompted U..S missile strikes on southern Iraq and a decision by Washington, with London's support but Paris' opposition, to expand a flight-exclusion zone in the south northward to the outskirts of Baghdad.

Clinton administration officials argued that their response showed leadership and hit Saddam where it hurt most, limiting his military's freedom of movement in the south, near Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. But Republican critics, and allies including France, said the response was a belated overreaction to the failure of post-Persian Gulf war policies in Iraq, and left Saddam stronger than before.

In the last few days, fighting 10 miles east of Sulaimaniya, the region's second-largest city, led Sunday to the abandonment of the city by the Iraqi-supported Kurdistan Democratic Party, which took the city six weeks ago with Iraqi help, and its reoccupation by the Patriotic Union.

Barham Salih, the Patriotic Union's representative in Washington, said Democratic Party forces had been pushed out of Sulaimaniya province and Rawanduz, in Erbil province, and pushed away from the Hamilton road, which connects strategic gorges in the area.

He said that Patriotic Union forces were 12.4 miles southeast of Erbil, and that "we are approaching Erbil very carefully" because it is protected by Iraqi tanks. He said the population inside Erbil could turn on the Democratic Party, as he claimed the population of Sulaimaniya did, and try to drive them out.

Iraqi tanks and armor are just south of the 36th parallel, which marks the northern no-flight zone, about 15.5 miles south of Erbil, said the Democratic Party spokesman, Hoshyar Zebari.

U.S. officials agreed that Iraqi tanks were "near Erbil," but not encircling it, and were probably a sufficient deterrent to any Patriotic Union effort to retake Erbil.

"Everything we can see is that there was no significant military activity by either Iraq or Iran, but neither side is very far away," said David Johnson, the spokesman for the National Security Council.

"The last few days have proven the situation is volatile and that neither group can impose a military solution. What we need is a cease-fire, real negotiations and other parties to avoid complicating the situation by becoming further involved."

Judith Kipper, the director of the Middle East Forum of the Council on Foreign Relations, said Monday that "the danger is to see this as a surrogate Iran-Iraq war, and it isn't -- the Kurds have been killing each other for centuries."

"If we want to keep Saddam out and the Iranians out, we need to use everything at our disposal to get the Kurds into a deal," she said. "What the White House doesn't want at any price is another flare-up in Iraq before the election."

Kurdish Faction's Drive Raises Concern of Iraqi Intervention

By John Lancaster Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, October 15 1996; Page A11 The Washington Post

ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 14 -- A Kurdish faction with links to Iran claimed today to have recaptured much of the territory it lost last month to a rival group backed by the Iraqi government, fueling concern that Iraqi forces may once again intervene in the rebellious Kurdish area of the country's north.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, headed by Jalal Talabani, said it has extended its grip to towns and strategic areas around Sulaymaniyah, the second-largest city in northern Iraq, which the group captured Sunday in renewed fighting with the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Massoud Barzani.

The fighting has sparked fears in the region that President Saddam Hussein may order his Iraqi forces to intervene on behalf of Barzani's faction, triggering a wider "proxy war" between Iraq and Iran and, possibly, a new confrontation with the United States. Last month, the United States fired cruise missiles at Iraqi military installations after Iraqi government forces came to Barzani's aid in the so-called Kurdish safe area of northern Iraq, which has been protected by U.S., British and French warplanes since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

The Clinton administration has urged both Iran and Iraq to stay out of the conflict this time and called on the warring Kurdish factions to seek a negotiated settlement that would allow them to share power in the north. A delegation of senior Kurdistan Democratic Party officials stopped briefly here today en route to Washington, where they are scheduled to meet this week with State Department officials.

The diplomatic activity highlighted once again how the Kurds -- fierce mountain tribes whose decades-old quest for independence has gone largely unnoticed by the outside world -- have come to assume a central role in a U.S. policy designed to diminish the Iraqi leader.

Hoshyar Zebari, a foreign policy adviser to Barzani who is in Washington for the State Department talks, cited evidence of heavy Iranian involvement in the attack on Sulaymaniyah. He said that Iranians shelled areas held by pro-Barzani forces from their side of the border and that Iranian Revolutionary Guards were killed in the battle.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the United States has "no direct evidence" that Iranians took part in the offensive against Sulaymaniyah, but he said it is impossible to rule out Iranian involvement.

Another U.S. official privy to intelligence reports discounted the claims of Barzani's party that the new offensive is backed by a large number of Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Shiite Muslim militiamen. He said Iran apparently is assisting the offensive by providing weapons, ammunition and supplies but that its contribution of personnel has been "very modest." At least some of these personnel are military advisers, he added.

The Patriotic Union has denied that it received any help from Iran. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mahmoud Mohammadi, called the claim a ploy to "pacify international forums regarding Barzani's collaboration with the Iraqi army."

There is no evidence that Iraqi troops have yet entered the fray, and Baghdad's public response to the fighting thus far has been restrained. After a meeting of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council chaired by Saddam on Sunday, the government invited the Kurdish factions to Baghdad to negotiate their differences and issued an oblique warning against Iranian involvement.

Since the Gulf War, the United States has encouraged Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq as a way of eroding Saddam's sovereignty over his own country. It also has promoted the use of northern Iraq as a base of operations for CIA-backed exile groups dedicated to Saddam's overthrow. But those efforts have been undermined by more than two years of fighting between the two Kurdish factions and, most recently, by Saddam's intervention on behalf of Barzani's group, which created an opening for the reimposition of government authority in the north.

In early September, Kurdistan Democratic Party forces backed by Iraqi tanks and infantry drove the Patriotic Union from Irbil, the administrative capital of northern Iraq. The attackers then moved on to take Sulaymaniyah, about 170 miles north of Baghdad, as Talabani's forces fled into neighboring Iran.

Now it appears the tables have turned once again. On Sunday, after a three-day offensive, Patriotic Union forces entered Sulaymaniyah unopposed as Barzani and his faction fell back to a new defensive line about 20 miles west of the city. The Patriotic Union said today that after taking Sulaymaniyah, its forces moved on to capture other towns, including Chamchamal and Taqtaq. Talabani's group also was reported to have retaken Dokan, site of a major hydroelectric dam, as well as other towns to the south and east of Sulaymaniyah.

Talabani's forces "seem to be advancing," a U.N. official said in a Reuter news service report from Baghdad. "They are in Degala and Kuysanjaq. Fighting is continuing, and both sides are using artillery and rocket launchers."

Given the apparent ease with which the Patriotic Union has recouped much of the territory it lost last month, there was widespread speculation that Talabani will send his forces on to Irbil. He has been noncommittal on that possibility, however, telling the Arab newspaper al-Hayat that he does not want to face Iraqi forces that are still deployed in the area.

Staff writer Michael Dobbs in Washington contributed to this report.

Tuesday October 15 11:59 AM EDT

Pro-Saddam Iraq Kurds Launch Counterattack

DEGALA, Iraq (Reuter) - Pro-Baghdad Iraqi Kurdish militiamen launched a counter-attack Tuesday to retake a key town from a rival guerrilla group pushing through northern Iraq, witnesses said.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) fighters deployed near the town of Degala fired heavy machineguns at Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) positions in a bid to recapture the nearby town of Koy Sanjak.

"We will get back Koy Sanjak by ascending hill by hill," Arif Tayfur, regional commander of KDP forces, told Reuters. He said he expected to take the town within a day.

No outside forces appeared to be involved in the fighting, part of a long Kurdish feud shaping up as a proxy conflict between adversaries Iran and Iraq.

Washington, closely watching the fighting, has counselled both sides to quit the battlefield and return to the negotiating table.

Hundreds of KDP fighters were taken to the front in two armoured personnel carriers and a fleet of battered buses and cars for the counter-offensive that began at 9 a.m. (0500 GMT).

Jalal Talabani's PUK has won back much of the ground it lost last month to KDP forces backed by Iraqi arms. The PUK took back Koy Sanjak, Talabani's home town, several days ago.

Barzani's group is to cite what it says is Iranian military support for its rival at a meeting with U.S. officials in Washington this week. Senior KDP members have left Turkey for the United States.

"They left last night," KDP Ankara spokesman Faik Nerwiye told Reuters. "They are on the way to Washington."

Washington has urged the Kurds not to get support from Iran and Iraq, part of a U.S. policy of "dual containment" to minimise their influence in regional disputes. It has also sought to restart KDP-PUK talks, suspended by the Iraq-backed KDP attack in August.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry said President Bill Clinton was closely following developments in northern Iraq.

"Clearly we would hope that both sides would discontinue the fighting," McCurry said. "We have called upon both Kurdish factions to unite so they can advance the cause of the Kurdish people in the north."

Iran has denied KDP allegations it has sent 13,000 Revolutionary Guards, arms and ammunition to northern Iraq to back Talabani.

Barzani's group invited Iraqi forces into northern Iraq in late August to take the city of Arbil from Talabani. The region had been a virtual no-go area for Baghdad's forces since 1991.

Washington responded to Baghdad's role in the fall of Arbil by launching missiles at targets in southern Iraq but was forced to abandon military, intelligence and aid operations in the mountainous north.

Barzani, previously close to the West, has said his deal with President Saddam Hussein was a one-off alliance to counter Iranian support for his Kurdish rival.

KDP commander Tayfur said Iranian forces and the Bedr militia, a pro-Tehran Iraqi Shiite group, had withdrawn toward the Iranian border after helping Talabani capture the city of Sulaimaniya at the weekend.

"We started our attack because the Iranian troops and Badr fighters were pulled back to the region between Sulaimaniya and the Iran border," he said.

Tuesday October 15 4:44 PM EDT

Pro-Saddam Iraqi Kurds Edge Toward Key Town

DEGALA, Iraq (Reuter) - An Iraqi Kurdish militia backed by President Saddam Hussein battled with a resurgent rival group in northern Iraq Tuesday in a bid to win back lost ground in see-saw fighting closely watched by Washington.

The Saddam-backed militiamen pushed their rivals six miles back in a counterattack aimed at retaking a key town, witnesses said.

About 2,000 Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) fighters deployed near the town of Degala moved closer to their target, Koy Sanjak, but fighting was interrupted by the passage of a U.N. aid convoy of 47 grain trucks.

"We are now just waiting for a new order to continue our final attack," said Robitran Ibrahim, commander of KDP forces in the nearby town of Degala.

There was no clear evidence of outside forces involved in the fighting, part of a long Kurdish feud shaping up as a proxy conflict between adversaries Iran and Iraq.

Washington, closely watching the fighting, has counseled both sides to quit the battlefield and return to the negotiating table.

Ibrahim told Reuters his men had captured Iranians fighting alongside the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) group and sent them to the KDP stronghold of Salahuddin.

"We arrested several enemy fighters with eight Iranians among them," he said. Iran denies KDP charges that it has sent men, arms and ammunition to help Jalal Talabani's PUK.

There was no sign of Iranian forces in Iraqi Kurdistan's biggest city Sulaimaniya, which the PUK took almost overnight last weekend.

However residents said they had seen Talabani's usually lightly armed militia in possession of unspecified new types of arms. "I believe those weapons are used by Iranian officers. The PUK did not have such weapons," said a resident who refused to give his name.

Barzani's group is to cite what it says is Iranian military support for its rival at a meeting with U.S. officials in Washington this week.

Turkish Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller said Turkey was in contact with neighbor Iran about its alleged involvement in the fighting, south of Turkey's own mainly Kurdish southeast.

"We are in contact with Iran, dialogue is continuing," Ciller told reporters after a meeting with President Suleyman Demirel. "We have received certain information along the lines of Iranians inside Talabani's forces," she said.

The KDP joined with Iraqi troops and tanks to take the city of Arbil from Talabani in late August, prompting U.S. missile strikes on military targets in south Iraq.

A senior PUK official on the front line said his forces had withdrawn Tuesday to regroup for a two-pronged attack on Arbil, contradicting comments from Talabani.

The PUK leader has said he would not assault the city because of the presence of Iraqi tanks there.

Barzani, previously close to the West, has said his deal with Saddam was a one-time alliance to counter Iranian support for his Kurdish rival.

A senior member of Talabani's group rejected an offer by Baghdad to mediate a peaceful end to the Kurdish clashes.

"We do not believe in Baghdad's policy, but we are asking for the continuation of U.S. mediation," PUK official Adnan Mufti told Reuters in Ankara.