THE Iraqi Kurdish militia allied to Baghdad captured the main stronghold of its Kurdish rival yesterday in a lightning drive through northern Iraq that raised fears of a refugee crisis.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Mr Massoud Barzani said its forces had met little resistance from Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) fighters as they swept into the city of Sulaimaniya near the border with Iran.
"The battle for Sulaimaniya is over. Massoud Barzani fighters have entered the city without fighting," a UN official said in Baghdad by telephone from Arbil.
The city, with a population of around a million, is the biggest Kurdish urban centre in Iraq and had long been the headquarters of Mr Jalal Talabani's PUK.
It lies 50 km from Iran which appealed for help to deal with a possible exodus of civilians fleeing the clashes.
State run Tehran radio quoted Mr Ahmad Hosseini, Tehran's top official in charge of refugees as saying Iran would make it possible for countries and international organisations to provide relief in camps located in border areas.
Mr Hosseini said 500 000 Kurds had been made homeless or were on the run because of the inter Kurdish fighting and needed food, clothing and heating equipment, the radio said.
If world bodies send the needed aid in time we will be able to avoid a human tragedy," Mr Hosseini said.
More than a million Iraqis most of them Kurds, fled to Iran when Baghdad crushed Kurdish and Shia Muslim uprisings after Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War. Most of the Kurds later returned to northern Iraq which has been split into rival Kurdish zones since 1994.
The KDP said Sulaimaniya residents had welcomed its forces.
UN sources in Baghdad said they could not give a figure on casualties or the number of people displaced
PUK appeals to the United States for help this week have apparently fallen on deaf ears.
There was no sign of Iraqi government troops or weapons as the KDP took the strategic Dukan Dam on its push to Sulaimaniya earlier yesterday.
The veteran warlord, Mr Barzani, defended his military cooperation with Saddam, his erstwhile arch enemy. "We don't have anything to apologise for. We did it openly, not secretly," he said at Dukan.
Analysts said it was likely that PUK fighters would regroup in Iran. Mr Talabani has openly warned the KDP and the West that without outside help he would be forced to turn to Tehran for help. The KDP has justified its new alliance with Iraq by accusing the PUK of siding with Iran.
In Washington the Republican presidential candidate, Mr Bob Dole, yesterday chided President Clinton for claiming success in the latest showdown with Iraq, saying "events on the ground" contradict the statement.
Iran said yesterday it would refuse to let in any new Iraqi Kurd refugees, as thousands of Kurds fled toward the border.
"Iran's policy is not to accept new Iraqi Kurd refugees on its territory," a government spokesman said. He added that there were "some 500,000 Kurdish refugees in the Sulaimaniya area" of northern Iraq.
Meanwhile, Egypt said yesterday it had assurances that Turkey would not set up a military presence in Iraq. Egyptian state radio said the Turkish President, Mr Suleyman Demirel, gave the assurances to President Hosni Mubarak when Mr Mubarak called him yesterday morning.