22 die, 40 injured in fighting in Kurdish town

          
          Tehran. I Reuteri —Twenty-two
          persons were ki led and 40 injured in
          heavy fighting yesterday between armed
          demonstrators and Islamic revolutionary
          guards in the Kurdish town of Marivan.
          the official Pars news agency said.
          The agency quoted helicopter pilots re-
          turning from the town to the Kurdistan
          provincial capital of Sanandaj as saying:
          “Marivan looks like a town destroyed by
          war.”
          The pilots had flown into Marivan, near
          the Iraqi border, to pick up wounded.
          Pars said the fighting had gone on for
          almost eight hours and quoted the com-
          mander of the Sanandaj Army Division as
          saying a cease-fire bad been reached at
          dusk.
          The commander said 15 of the wounded
          were in critical condition.
          the Fedayeen guerrilla movement re-
          ported earlier yesterday that at least I I
          persons had been killed in the clashes.
          A Fedayeen spokesman said by tele-
          phone from Sanandaj that the fighting had
          started when guards opened fire on the
          crowd from revolutionary committee
          buildings.
          Re said the Fedayeen had the names of
          Il dead and 17 injured. But a spokesman
          for the pro-government Kurdish leader in
          Sanandaj, Ahmad Moftizadeh, said the
          death toll might be as high as 20.
          The Fedayeen said the demonstrators,
          made up of peasant farmers and Kurds
          seeking autonomy for their homeland, had
          taken over the committee buildings and
          apparently were in control of the town.
          All telephone communication with
          Marivan was cut shortly after the fight-
          ing.
          The spokesman for Mr Moftizadeh said
          a helicopter had flown to the town to in-
          vestigate the fighting and bring out
          wounded.
          An Army division is based at Marivan
          but it was not known whether it had inter-
          vened in the fighting.
          The spokesman said demonstrators ac-
          cused the revolutionary committee in
          Marivan of supporting feudal landlords
          trying to regain land lost to peasants in a
          1963 land reform. Ten landlords were
          killed last month by peasants.
          Rashem Sabaghian, the Iranian interior
          minister, said before the outbreak of fight-
          ing yesterda t plotters were creating
          problems fo on its border with Iraq,
          S hat Ira rirds were crossing into
          for fear of being arrested in their
          own country.
          But he added in an interview with the
          newspaper Ettfla'at that the situation in
          the oil-rich southern province of Khuzis-
          tan was even more dangerous.
          Mr. Sabaghian said smugglers were
          ferrying arms to what he described as
          counttf-TeVOlUtlOnafles in the &rab-popu-
          kited province. “We will resist these plots
          with all our might,” he said.
          Admiral Ahmad Madani, the governor
          of Khuzistan, said counter-revolutionaries
          and imperialist agents were disrupting the
          province, where several revolutionary
          guards and Arabs have died in clashes
          over the past few days. He called on
          guards to take energetic action against an-
          vone found near installations.
          22 die, 40 injured in fighting in Kurdish town
          The Sun (183 7-1985); Jul 15, 1979; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Baltimore Sun, The (1837-1986)
          pg. A4
          22 die, 40 injured in fighting in Kurdish town
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