Anti-Hussein Kurds Regain More Territory

An anti-Baghdad Kurdish faction advanced farther into Iraqi Kurdistan on Monday as Western diplomats scrambled to counter the threat that Saddam Hussein might use the clashes as a pretext to move back into the northern enclave.

Both sides of the conflict agreed that the progress of Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) from its bases on the Iranian border had slowed and that his front lines were 15 miles east of the regional capital, Irbil.

Although Talabani said he would not advance on Irbil because it was “ringed with Iraqi tanks,” a PUK spokesman in Turkey made clear that the group wants to take control of the city of 1 million people.

Iraqi armor and troops have mostly kept out of the latest fighting, despite allegations by the retreating Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP) that Iranian artillery and thousands of Revolutionary Guards have been involved.

The PUK has now recaptured the eastern half of Iraqi Kurdistan that it lost in a Baghdad-backed KDP offensive six weeks ago in the most dramatic round of a fitful inter-Kurdish war. But Iraqi officials so far have made only weak calls for a cease-fire and peace talks--in Baghdad.

“That is just their official position, to take the moral high ground. In fact, they are waiting for an opportunity to come back whether we like it or not,” said Hoshyar Zibari, KDP representative in Washington. Later this week, in an attempt at reconciliation, a delegation from the faction is to hold talks in Washington with senior U.S. officials.

The PUK and Tehran have denied Iranian involvement in the latest action, and foreign observers cannot confirm it. The United States has so far tried to stay neutral in a conflict that has developed with bewildering speed and that few people claim to understand fully.

One diplomat said the rapid turnover of territory in the area in recent months could be explained only by the ill-disciplined fighters’ fear that their opponents were backed by strong regional powers and that young tribal recruits on both sides were never part of or truly accepted by the established urban populations.

“We are calling on both the PUK and the KDP to end the fighting,” State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Monday, adding that the United States wants both Iran and Iraq to stay out of the combat.

When it moved tanks and troops north to support the KDP in the last round of fighting, Baghdad earned a sobering volley of cruise missiles from the United States, which, with its allies, had warned Iraq since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War against harassing Kurds in northern Iraq. The United Nations also postponed a deal to swap food and medicine for $2 billion of Iraqi oil after the Iraqi president’s incursion into the north.

But Western diplomats said Hussein’s next response cannot be predicted. “We need to do what we can to prevent the spread of Saddam Hussein’s malign influence,” said one diplomat from the Gulf War alliance. “There is a big question about whether there should be a renewed Western military presence and what future arrangements we can make so that there be no more fighting.”

The KDP’s Zibari said reactivation of a post-Gulf War allied military coordination center in northern Iraq would be “an excellent idea. If they want to contain Iraq, they need” the center. The last few officers representing the once-powerful allied military presence in northern Iraq were moved over the border into Turkey last month during the fighting.

Not all the allies are likely to agree to moving the mission back in or to any other new military engagements.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, for example, said such a move was out of the question. Turkey--which has opposed efforts by Kurds to create an independent state and has conducted large military sweeps against its own Kurdish rebels--has grown increasingly uncomfortable with Western military involvement in Iraq in the five years since the Gulf War.

Turkey is also impatient with the continued sanctions against what once was the nation’s No. 2 trading partner. Many Turks also believe that foreign forces somehow gave moral or real help to Turkish Kurd rebels who have been fighting since 1984 for an independent Kurdistan.

Turkey now fears that fighting between Kurdish factions will cause a power vacuum that will help Turkish Kurd rebels rebuild bases along the mountainous Turkish-Iraqi border, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Omer Akbel said.

“We are watching closely, even if it does look a bit like musical chairs. If there is no security on the other side, then we may have to take the necessary measures ourselves,” Akbel said.

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Kurds on the Move

An anti-Baghdad Kurdish faction is reversing its losses to a rival group that overran much of the region six weeks ago with the help of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s forces.

1) The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) recaptured Sulaymaniyah and other districts in the area from the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP) on Sunday.

2) PUK troops routed KDP forces from six districts lying between Sulaymaniyah and Irbil, advancing to within 15 miles of Irbil, the regional capital.