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
