KDP Asks Saddam To Invade Kurdistan

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at etext.org>
Subject: KDP Asks Saddam To Invade Kurdistan!

CNN - Iraq attacks Kurdistan to quell Iranian-backed faction
Aug. 31, 1996

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein ordered his troops
Saturday into Kurdistan to crush Iranian-backed separatists 
holding parts of the mountainous enclave.

Hundreds of tanks and armored cars were reported attacking 
the town of Irbil in northern Iraq. "There is heavy shelling 
everywhere," a United Nations guard posted in Irbil said.  

The U.N.'s Mohsin Habib added that residents were scurrying throughout 
the city, looking for shelter. "The shells are falling within 100 meters
of our office location," he said.

Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, said the "limited
military operation" was in response to an appeal by the 
Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two Kurdish factions vying 
for supremacy in the "safe haven."
  
Aziz's statement was carried by the official Iraqi News 
Agency, monitored in Cyprus.  In one newscast, Iraq blamed the United States 
and Iran for what it called "dangerous infringements on Iraqi sovereignty."

The Iraqi intervention could heighten tensions between 
Baghdad and allied forces policing the region since the end 
of the Gulf War in 1991. It could also heighten tension 
between Iraq and Iran, which fought a ferocious war between 
1980 and 1988.

Fighting broke out Friday between Kurdish rebels and Iraqi
government forces in the northern Iraqi enclave. The 
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is backed by Iran, 
said Iraqi troops launched a massive tank-led offensive on Irbil, 
one of Kurdistan's main cities.
  
The group said its guerrillas were resisting, but that the 
advancing Iraqi troops had reached the outskirts of the city. 
Iraqi Kurds form a 3.5 million ethnic minority seeking
independence from Baghdad. 
  
The PUK appealed for urgent help from Western coalition 
forces based in Turkey and the Gulf region, and reported 
"scores of civilians casualties." Others were fleeing in 
droves, it said.

Earlier, after receiving reports of Iraqi troop movement, the 
White House said the United States had made it clear to Iraq
the "seriousness" of such activity.


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