Shah ‘has given Kurdish rebels $200M’

Press, 11 October 1979, Page 8

Shah ‘has given Kurdish rebels $200M’

■ INZPA-Reuter Beirut | The Iranian Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Sadeq Taba- ! tabai) has said that the ousted [Shah has paid S2OOM to finlance the Kurdish rebellion, j He told a press conference ; before flying to Damascus [that the money was paid] [three. weeks ago to two [ officers through the Shah’s I |.son-in-law, Ardashir Zahedi, the former Iranian Ambassa-i dor to the United States. He] did not say who the officers; were. Mr Tabatabai said the rev-1 olutionary authorities in: Iran had recently arrested aj number of non-Iranians ini ; Kurdistan, whpre Kurdish! guerrillas have been fighting) Government forces. These included eight .officers from what he described as “a sister country." ] Iranian authorities have announced plans to take the [war against Kurdish guer-: [rillas out of the towns and into the countryside after rebel ambushers killed up to 60 Revolutionary Guards on la rural highway. The Interior Minister (Mr [Hashem Sabaghian) told the' jTeheran daily, “Bamdad":

t‘“We must spread the fight to the mountains and roads.' ».After investigation we will • send forces to the area be-. 11 cause at the moment we are -[stationed in towns.” I A Revolutionary Guard ;i spokesman in the former ,-rebel capital of Mahabad 1 told Reuters by telephone > that as many as 60 guards ■ 'were believed to have been . killed in Sunday night's at•itack on the road from Sarijdasht, on the Iraq border, to. ijßaneh. i The spokesman, Ali Falh' (said: “In the next two or! (three days the rebels will be . severely crushed with the i use of. bombs, mortars, heli-' . copters, and fighters. This decision has been taken by; the Revolutionary Guards' Corps. We have already' identified their positions and hide-outs.” Kurdish rebels took to the . hills last month after Gov-1 (ernment forces captured strongholds of the banned Kurdish Democratic Party in a number of towns. " including Mahabad. Sardasht. and Baneh- But the authorities have acknowledged that the guerrillas still control’ .roads in the region.