Iranian Troops Drive Kurds Into Hills

          
          h anian Troops Dri Kurds Into Hills
          I s n , k 1un ( I C u r nt ! k) I
          Pt Q e t II c 1 Ne p pet L n_e e Time (1 S 1 1 ) 7
          REBELS VOW TO FIGHT ON
          franian Troops Drive Kurds Into Hills
          MAHABAD, Iran (A G vernment
          troops striking under cover of F 4
          ph n m fighter bombers, helicopter
          gunslups and tanks br acbed rebel
          deren e lrnes aut&d th Kwd h
          strongh d Monday, dnvrng most f
          the guerrillas into the surround g
          hi1Is
          As the troops adv nc d n a two
          pronged attack mmed at &ushing the
          rebellion, the main guemlia force and
          nrnst of the city's populatwn puII d
          aut vowing to fight o
          The 64th Infantry Divi n and the
          81st Armored Thvi rnn burst through
          Kurd sh defe e p s I ons on the c
          ty z northern approaches , but obser-
          vers at the scene said they apparently
          thd not want to enter the c ty at night
          and prob b y would make th r frn
          push into Mababad at daybreak today,
          The divis n ammand rs were
          quoted on the state radrn a sayrng
          government forces had vfctori usly
          ent&ed Mahab d and had been wel
          corned by the people. But there wa
          no s gn of army tra ps in the r a of
          the city s main square, and several
          armed Kurds could be seen in the
          s r ets.
          Heavy exchanges f artiIl ry fire
          could be heard rnto the rnght echorng
          through the nearby hills Government
          tanks fired salvos into the main body
          of Kurdizh forcc retreating toward
          the mountain stronghold of Sar
          Dasht, 50 miles to the south close to
          he Iraqi border
          Another c&umn of government
          troops advanced thraugh the city 's
          southern approach and amved at
          th outskirts of the city at nightfall
          Governne t mmander . claimed
          there were no ca uat e m g their
          troops but the rebe s suffered an un
          determined number
          The Kurds have been f ghUng the
          r vo1u ionary regime of the Ayatollah
          Ruhollah Khrnn rni for month seek
          rng autonomy from the central Teh
          ran government for their region of
          western Iran
          Now w are going to concentrate
          our forees rn S r Da ht where they
          can't use their tanks so effectlvely$
          said a ranking ofhcia of the barnied
          Kurdish Democratic Party He vowed
          that the Kurds would deliver a sev
          ere b1ow ' to th army at Sar Dash
          Before the fightrng erupted Mon-
          day, many of the esbmated 10000
          guerrilI s and nwst of the city's civi-
          han p pula ion of 1 000, induding
          women and children, left Mahab d,
          the civilians carryrng s many per
          son 1 be ongrngs as possible. The
          Kurdish rebels took artillery piecez
          and other heavy weapons with them.
          The government armored column
          of 14 tanks, armored personnel car-
          ri&s and trucks rolled rnto the north-
          em out kirt of Mahabad befdre noon
          The ground troops, backed up by he
          hcopte gw h ps d
          m chh e gwis attacked remaining re-
          bels h 1ed up rn a m Iitary garr on.
          The Kurds rephed with 108 mm re-
          coilless rifles and 105-mm how t ers
          The city h elf appeared LO nave
          5uffer d little damage in the fighting
          One school, a government vaaatioral
          trainrng center and a handful of
          lwuses were damaged by rnek ts
          fired by helicopter gtrnships Most of
          the actrnn within the city w cen
          tered on an army garri n Kurdish
          reb 1s used as their bastion,
          The rebe1 , driven out of the near-
          by city of Saqqez more than a week
          ago, had vowed to hold onto Mahabad
          despite threats that the army would
          attack if the government was not a1
          lowed to reegablish its authonty rn
          the cay Mahabad i headquar ers of
          the Kurthsh Deniocratrn Party.
          The state radio in Tebran said the
          party w working for the benefit of
          for gn powers,” wiuch were not
          dentthed Last Fnthy Khom irn ac-
          cused the Kurds of spreadrng “Com
          munist corrupLkn ”
          The Kurdish party is considered
          the ma r unifying political force in
          Kurdistan
          Abdulrahman Gassemlou, secreta
          ry gener 1 of the party's Central
          Committ , and Kurdish spiritu 1
          head Sheik Ezzedin Hossern went into
          h drng when the party w s outlawed.
          The government has ord r d their
          arrest and trial on charges of being
          c LnterevolujDna 'ies.
          Reproduced wHth perrisson of lie copyright ov icr Further reproduCtion P101 bited v ithout periiss or