Bonni Network

Wednesday, October 16, 1996

Kurd rebels say they have halted their advance outside Irbil They urged civilians to oppose the Iraqi-backed faction. Turkey says Iranian troops may be present.

By Yalman Onaran ASSOCIATED PRESS

ZAKHU, Iraq -- Kurdish rebels said they halted their advance outside northern Iraq's provincial capital of Irbil yesterday and urged the population to rebel against a rival, Iraqi-backed faction that controls the city.

The capture of Irbil by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Aug. 31 was aided by Iraqi troops, but there has been no indication that Saddam Hussein's army has intervened as the Iranian-backed Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) marched back to the city.

However, Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller of Turkey said yesterday: ``We are receiving reports about the presence of Iranian troops among PUK forces in northern Iraq.''

Hussein's forces are unlikely to remain out of the fray if substantial Iranian involvement in the fighting is confirmed. The two countries fought a war from 1980 to 1988 in which millions died.

Until Ciller's statement, only pro-Baghdad forces had alleged that Iran had sent troops into Iraq. Ciller did not cite the source of her information. Turkey is known to have a sizable intelligence network in northern Iraq.

Both the PUK and Iran deny Iranian involvement in the fighting.

After the Kurdistan Democratic Party captured Irbil, the United States retaliated last month with cruise missiles. According to a senior U.S. military officer, Iraq rebuilt part of its surface-to-air missile network in southern Iraq within two weeks of the U.S. attacks.

A spokesman for the PUK said that the group's fighters were in control of areas 12 miles southwest of Irbil. On Sunday, the PUK retook Sulaymaniyah, the area's second-largest city, which the KDP evacuated to avoid bloodshed.

Reached by telephone in London yesterday, spokesman Lateef Rashid said the PUK had no immediate intention to march into Irbil. PUK leader Jalal Talabani said in remarks published Monday that his group, whose weekend offensive broke a monthlong lull in the fighting, would rely on Irbil's one million residents to oust the KDP.

A PUK-run radio station was broadcasting calls for Irbil residents to revolt against the KDP, according to reports yesterday in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat.

The newspaper also quoted an unidentified PUK official as saying five Iraqi divisions were deployed around Irbil. But Rashid, the PUK spokesman, said there were no reports of renewed fighting yesterday.

The KDP said late yesterday that it had set up defensive lines 25 miles east of Irbil. The statement said the PUK had launched a large, but unsuccessful, offensive northeast of Irbil, south of Rawondoz and just 12 miles from the Iranian border.

Wednesday October 16 5:06 PM EDT

US Official in New Bid to End Kurdish Fighting

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The United States Wednesday announced a new bid to end Kurdish fighting in northern Iraq, saying a senior State Department official would visit the Middle East next week to meet leaders of the warring factions.

The trip by Assistant Secretary of State Robert Pelletreau will follow previously scheduled talks in Washington Thursday with one of the groups, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said.

Burns told reporters that Pelletreau would set off at the weekend to meet separately with KDP leader Massoud Barzani, who is not in the delegation visiting Washington, and Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Pelletreau arranged the meetings in telephone conversations with both leaders on Wednesday morning, Burns said.

PUK forces have been recovering territory lost during an assault by the KDP backed by Iraqi troops last month which devastated U.S. aid, military and intelligence efforts in northern Iraq.

Washington fears any possible Iraqi or Iranian bid for influence in northern Iraq, which has been under Western protection since the 1991 Gulf War.

Burns said the aim of Pelletreau's talks with Barzani and Talabani was to "convince them that it is in their immediate interest to move towards a cease-fire and not to allow Iran or Iraq the opportunity to inflame the situation further."

He added: "Our core, fundamental assessment is that neither of them can win militarily on the battlefield, but we believe that by stopping the fighting and agreeing at least to work together in northern Iraq they can restore stability to northern Iraq and hopefully keep Iran and Iraq out."

Barzani's group has accused neighboring Iran of sending men and munitions across the border to help Talabani as part of a regional rivalry between Tehran and Baghdad. Both Iran and the PUK have denied this.

Burns said it had not yet been decided where Pelletreau would meet Barzani and Talabani, but the official was not expected to visit northern Iraq itself. Pelletreau met Barzani last month in the Turkish capital Ankara.

After seeing the Kurds, Pelletreau will continue on a previously scheduled tour of Gulf Arab states, Burns said.

Pelletreau will also take part in Thursday's talks at the State Department with the KDP delegation led by Sami Abdurrahman, a close aide to Barzani, and Nechirwan Barzani, the party leader's cousin.

Burns said that despite reports to the contrary, the United States still had no evidence of direct Iraqi or Iranian involvement in the latest fighting, although it would "stand to reason" that the PUK might have had contacts with Iran.

The spokesman said Pelletreau's talks with the Kurds would go beyond a simple cease-fire and address how the rival groups could settle their differences politically and not by force.

Since the United States and its allies declared a no-fly-zone for Iraqi forces in northern Iraq in 1991, effectively closing the area to Baghdad, they have propped up an autonomous Kurdish administration in the mountainous area.

But the West has always refused to countenance the idea of an independent Kurdish state, and the region's politics have been bedeviled by the persistent rivalry of the KDP and PUK.

Washington has made several attempts to mediate, but its last effort in London at the end of August collapsed when word arrived that the KDP, with Iraqi help, had seized control of the key city of Arbil from the PUK.