Rival Kurdish Forces Clash in Northeast

Fierce fighting raged between rival Kurdish groups in northeastern Iraq on several fronts in the buffer zone separating their militias, the United Nations said. U.N. spokesman Eric Falt described the situation as “serious” but declined comment on whether the fighting was hampering distribution of humanitarian supplies under Iraq’s oil-for-food deal with the U.N. He gave no details on casualties in the fighting between guerrillas of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and militiamen of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan.