Kurd Faction Starts Fleeing Last Iraqi Stronghold

PUK administrators poured out as forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) overran three more key points, one a hill where only the day before the PUK said its commander Jalal Talabani had visited the battlefront.

The PUK has simply left its offices. The theory is they are on their way to the Iranian border. I think it's a matter of hours before something happens, Mogens Hansen, UN security officer for the region, told Reuters.

They're running because they're frightened, KDP Captain Sami Jabbar said of the PUK fighters while he and his men advanced in a convoy of cars, buses and pickup trucks mounted with heavy machineguns.

 

Jabbar said they were 80-90km (50-55 miles) northwest of Sulaimaniya.

Minutes later the KDP men came under fire. At least one militiaman was killed on each side during the clash near Kani Osman village. Brush fires, ignited by the heavy fire, raged in fields on either side of the road.

KDP militiamen said they could reach Sulaimaniya later in the day. But KDP politburo member Faisal Mirani said no decision had been made and for now they would head north to strategic Dukan dam to control its hydroelectric power plant.

In a statement the PUK said Sulaimaniya, 50km (30 miles) from the Iranian border, was in danger of collapse and appealed to Washington to help it against the KDP, now aligned with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The US administration speaks of southern Iraq, but Saddam's tanks, army and secret police are on the move in the north