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Rival Kurdish groups clash in north Iraq

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Fighting has resumed between Islamist militants and regional authorities in Northern Iraq after a two-week lull, according to a well-informed Kurdish source on Tuesday.

Mohammed Haji Mahmoud, leader of the Kurdistan Socialist Party, told United Press International that violent clashes broke out over the weekend between the Islamist Kurds of the Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam) and forces of the governing Patriotic Union of Kurdistan near the villages of Tawila and Biyara on the border with Iran.

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Mahmoud said the PUK forces gained control of a number of Jund positions but sustained a number of fatalities, mostly from land mines placed by the Jund.

Iranian sources put the number of PUK killed at at least 30. Iran keeps a close watch on this part of Iraqi Kurdistan and has put pressure on the PUK to allow other Islamist Kurdish groups to remain in the area.

The PUK, headed by Jalal Talabani, has reported that the Jund includes a number of Afghan Arabs and is linked to Osama bin Ladin's al Qaida organization. The Jund first appeared as a threat to PUK rule early in September. Jund Kurdish members include disaffected former supporters of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan and other local Islamist groups.

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The Jund has declared an Islamic emirate in the villages it controls. Its practices are like those of the Taliban. Women are required to be completely covered when in public, and worship at a local holy man's tomb is forbidden, as is the display of photographs and listening to music, the PUK has reported.

The renewed fighting came after calls by the PUK to the Jund to surrender and give up its weapons. Observers saw the outcome of the conflict as important for determining whether Islamist influence would grow in the region.

While the PUK controls the eastern part of Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern area, that borders on Turkey, is ruled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, headed by Masud Barzani.

Islamists have carried out terrorists attacks in the KDP area but not mounted guerrillas operations. The PUK and KDP areas have enjoyed virtual autonomy from rule from Baghdad over the past decade after the United States made much of Iraqi Kurdistan a safe haven under the protection of the U.S. and British air patrols.

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