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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