Kurds ambush column

Press, 23 April 1980, Page 8

Kurds ambush column

NZPA-Reuter Teheran Twenty soldiers were killed and 36 wounded when an Iranian Army column skirting the Kurdistan provincial capital of Sanandaj was attacked by Kurdish guerrillas yesterday, a joint staff communique has said. The communique indicated that once the column entered the outskirts of the city, it came under fire in several areas. The communique said 320 guerrillas had been killed in four days of fighting in the region, but the Kurdish Democratic Party said Sanandaj was shut down yesterday as two more army columns approached the city and air force Phantoms buzzed it. They said the army was holding certain key points in > Sanandaj, including the radio : station and communications : centre, and was shooting into the town. : The joint staff communi- i

i que said a column that left Sanandaj on the road north : to the town of Saqqez had i also come under fire, but it i gave no details of casualties. It said civilians had been ordered to evacuate villages along the road, and that the : army would attack any village from which it drew ! fire. K.P.D. sources said two helicopter gunships had fired at buildings in Saqqez, and civilians were fleeing to surrounding hills in anticipation of further clashes. The latest round of fighting in Kurdistan has been sparked by military movements in the region, ostensibly aimed at reinforcing the border with Iraq. The Kurdish guerrilla groups allege this is an excuse for the army to re-establish its 1 dominance in the region, most of which has been ef- 1 fectively run by the Kurds i themselves since earlier this ] year when Revolutionary < Guard forces withdraw.