Iranians, Kurds reported preparing for second clash

          
          Iranians Kurdu reported preparing for second clash
          The Sun (1837-1985); Aug 27, 1979; PruQuest Historicul Newspupers: Baltimore Sue, The (1537-1956)
          pg. A4
          Iranians, Kurds reported
          preparing for
          Saqqez, fri] (AP)—The Islamic re-
          gime's troops m5pped up in this shell-that-
          tend town yesterday after smashing a
          four-day siege by Kurdish rebels. But the
          rebels vowed to fight again elsewhere and
          reported both sides were preparing for a
          major battle for the Kurds' main strong-
          hold of Mahabad.
          In Tehran, assassins killed two support-
          ers of the Islamic regime's spiritual lead-
          er, Ayatollah Ruhollab Khomeini, and
          wounded a third.
          The.lattle for Saqqez, a town in west-
          ern Ir near the Iraqi border, ended tat-
          urday after government troops, flown
          there in giant Chinook helicopters, rein-
          forced their besieged garrison. They fired
          a blistering barrage with heavy weaponry
          and overpowered the Kurdish tighten.
          Yesterday, as government troops
          searched house-to -house for insurgents,
          the Kurds called their pullout a “tactical
          retreat” One Kurdish source said most of
          the rebel force of less than 500 bad en-
          caped. The government garrison was
          about 700 men.
          Kurdish sources said they now expect a
          government strike on Mahabad, a heavily
          fortified city of more than 100,000, about
          50 miles northwest of Saqqez. They said a
          government armored column of at least
          65 tanks, scores of armored personnel car-
          riers and long-range artillery, was await-
          ing orders outside the farming village of
          Solda about 20 miles south of Mahabad.
          The insurgents said Mahahad would not
          be intimidated.
          “We have anti-aircraft weapons, 105-
          mm. howitzers, 106-mn recoilless rifles,
          mortars and 17 tanks ready for action,”
          one Kurdish leader said. Kurds leaving
          Saqqez were seen carrying such weapons
          in trucks.
          In addition, the leader added, the Kurds
          have “thousands of armed fighters, all
          highly trained to tackle any situatI On....
          If they use helicopters to strafe and rocket
          second clash
          us as they did at Saqqez, they are going to
          find it rough. Now we have the weapons to
          knock them out of the sky.”
          Mahabad was reported quiet, with
          shops and businesses operating normally.
          Mahabad is where Abdol Rahman Qas-
          semlu, secretary of the banned Kurdish
          Demoeratic party's Central Committee,
          maintains his headquarters. The Kurdish
          religious leader, Sheik Enedin Hosseni,
          also lives there. Like most Kurds, Sheik
          Hosseni is a member of the Sunni sect of
          Islam—a branch different from the Shilte
          branch, to which the ayatollah and most of
          Iran's Persian majority belong.
          Kurdish rebels have been demanding
          autonomy from the fundamentalist Is-
          lamic regime that replaced Shah Moham-
          mad Reza Pahlavfs government last win-
          ter, and many of Iran's 4 million Kurds
          hope to form an independent state with
          about 8 million other Kurds in neighboring
          Iraq and Turkey.
          Earlier this month, as fighting escalat-
          ed, Khomeini banned the Kurdish Demo-
          cratic party and sent Iran's armed forces
          and his revolutionary guards to crush the
          rebellion.
          Mr. Qassemlu said yesterday the Kurds
          would wage “all-out war” and make Kur-
          distan “the graveyard of the reactionary
          regime.” He also vowed that the Kurds,
          who hold 150 revolutionary guards hos-
          tage, would execute one guard for each
          the regime executes.
          ay, about 100 Kurds were re-
          ported to have been arrested by govern-
          ment forces in Saqqez when the battle
          there ended, and a religious judge was re-
          ported to have been sent totrythem.
          Saqqez remained In serious need of
          medical personnel and supplies, with
          scores of wounded In Its one overcrowded
          hospital. Officials feared new explosions
          at a fuel depot, which was still burning
          after having been hit by government artil-
          leryfirt
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