PUK advances towards Arbil

KOY SANJAK, Iraq - Kurd militiamen opposed to Baghdad pushed north towards the city of Arbil yesterday. Arbil was the seat of a Kurdish regional government that collapsed last year in inter factional squabbling. Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) guerrillas backed by Iraqi troops and tanks took the city from Mr Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in August.