TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald

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From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl)
Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald


U.S.-Turkish delegation said to meet Iraq Kurds

    ANKARA, Jan 27 (Reuter) - A U.S.-Turkish delegation met rival Iraqi
Kurdish leaders to urge an end to weeks of sporadic infighting in northern
Iraq, an Iraqi opposition group said on Friday.

    The Iraqi Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) in London reported a series of
meetings between leaders Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani and the
delegation, led by David Litt, Washington's Director of the Office of
Northern Gulf Affairs.

    ``Speaking on behalf of the U.S. government, Litt expressed dismay at
Kurdish infighting. He reminded the leaders that Operation Provide Comfort's
goal is to protect the Kurds from Saddam Hussein and to promote peace and
security in Iraqi Kurdistan,'' said an IBC statement, faxed to Reuters in
Ankara.

    It did not say when the meetings took place.

    The allied air force, Operation Provide Comfort, has been based in
southeast Turkey since 1991 to protect Iraqi Kurds from Baghdad forces
following the Gulf War, but the justification for the force has increasingly
come into question.

    Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Talabani's Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan (PUK) have shared power uneasily in northern Iraq since
elections in 1992. Party factions resumed clashes in December after fighting
in May and August.

    The statement said Litt urged the leaders to accept mediation from the
Iraqi National Congress (INC), an umbrella opposition grouping that includes
Barzani and Talabani.

    The INC has successfully helped mediate between the groups on previous
occasions.