Kurds Executed 60 Iraqi Captives, Leaders Admit

Fighting Tuesday between Iraqi government troops and Kurdish rebels left hundreds dead and wounded, according to a medical team and spokesmen for the rebels.

Kurdish leaders admitted that their supporters executed 60 Iraqi prisoners of war on Monday in Sulaymaniyah. A statement by the Kurdistan Democratic Party condemned the killings and said an inquiry has been launched.

News reports said the unarmed Iraqi POWs were shot while kneeling inside a building with their hands on their heads.

“The (Kurdistan Democratic Party) strongly condemns the killing of Iraqi prisoners, since this is a clear violation of Geneva conventions,” the party’s statement said.

Serchil Qazzaz, a representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, also said in Ankara, Turkey, that Iraqi troops began shelling Sulaymaniyah intensely Tuesday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian group, said in Brussels that about 400 people had died in the fighting.

As the worst outbreak of fighting in five months continued, a Kurdish group charged that Iraq was lowering water levels at the vital Dukan dam, 43 miles west of Sulaymaniyah.