ICar tEEs T o'sir ‘All-Oat S 7a:r' O n Iran' S I sla m Ic (I.ove rnrn eat.
Frctn News Services
SAQQEZ, Iran, Aug. 25 — A column
of 200 government troops smashed
through Kurdish rebel lines today in
an- attempt to relieve a besieged garri-
soii here, as a Kurdish leader prom-
ised “all-out war” to make the Icurds'
autonomy-minded province “the
graveyard” of Iran's Islamic govern-
ment.
Helicopter gunshi ps. jets, tanks
rockets and heavy artillery have fig-
tired in the fight that began here
Thursday, and parts of Saqqez were
in ruins today.
The city's one hospital was packed
with wounded and dying.
There was no estimate of casualties,
believed to be high on both sides.
Most of the civilians who could get
out had fled.
:State radio issued an urgent appeal
for doctors and nurses to volunteer to
fly to the area, in a valley in Western
Iran. It said the garrison and the town
were in need of medical help.
Abdurahrnan Qassemlu, secretary
general of the banned leftist-ori-
ented Kurdish Democratic Party's
Central Committee, said in an inter-
view in the town of Mahabad that
“there are 100,000 armed Kurdish men
who are willing to die for their iae-
als.”
“We will make Kurdistan the grave-
yar d of the reactionary regime.” he
vowed. “We know the central govern-
ment is not as strong as it pretends to
be. Wait till we start an all-out war
and then the Tehran government will
realize what revolutionary potential
the lCurdish people have.”
He said there vi1l be new battles
throughout Kui-clistan. 1-le said the
ICurds have already began executing
Revolutionary Guardsmen in retalia-
tion for executions of ICurds.
The 4 million iCurds in iran, to-
gether with B million other Kurds in
Iraq and Turkey. Tong have dreamed
of an independent state. In Iran,
Kurdish leaders had hoped for auton-
omy after the revolution led by reli-
gious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho-
meini toppled Shah Iv lohammad Reza
Pahiavi last winter.
But open fighting has broken out be-
tween Kurds and the new rulers, and
Khomeini has mobilized the armed
forces to crush the rebellion.
In a speech delivered Friday and
t roadcast today over state radio from
the city of Qom, Khomeini denounced
“democrats and, intellectuals,” and ac-
cused them of responsibility for the
problems in Kurdistan. .He said they
“want to give away the country under
the guise of democracy.”
The 79-year-old religious leader
said, “When democrats talk about
freedom, they are inspired by the su-
perpowers. They want to lead our
youth to places of corruption.” If that
is what they want, he added, “Then
yes. we are reactionaries.
“You who want prostitution and
freedom in every matter are intellec-
tuals. You consider corrupt morality
as freedom, prostitution as freedom,”
he said, adding later:
“Those who want freedom, want the
freedom to have bars, brothels, casi-
nos, opium etc. But we want our
youth to carve out a new period in
history. Ve do not want intellectuals.”
The ayatollah, who addressed a
crowd Friday to mark the end of the
Moslem fasting month of Ramadan.
referred to himself by the new title of
ololatnr. In Koranic ternis, this means
a religious leader who is corn petent to
judge all matters and whose orders it
is a religious duty to obey.
“We have freed the nation and of
course we cannot give that sort of
freedom that leads to corruption
and destruction,” the ayatollah said.
Qassenilu, in the ¶nterview with the
Associated Press, said the ICurds are
prepared for a “long, drawn-out war.
We will not let the war be limited to
Saqqez. Over the next few days, we
are going to expand our confront a-
tions with the government forces all
over Kurdistan.”
He also said the basic Kurdish de-
m ands—autono my for ICurdistan, re-
lease of Kurdish hostages, an end to
executions of Kurds and withdrawal
of all regular forces and - Islamic
guards from Kurdiflan—have now
been expanded.
“We now demand democracy for all
of Iran, freedom for all political par-
ties and guaranteed freedom for the
press,”he said.
I-Xe said four Islamic guards were
executed Friday ‘in retaliation for the
execution of ICurds taken prisoner in
earlier fighting, and he threatened to
execute one guard for every ICurd
shot by Islamic revolutionary authori-
ties.
He said the ICurds are holding 150
captured Revolutionary Guards,
The state radio reported revolution-
ary tribunals had executed nine men
today in the Kurdish town of Marivan,
62 miles south of Saqqez.
Elsewhere in Iran, four men were
executed by Islamic revolutionary tri-
bunals for attacking and killing peo-
ple demonstrating last year against
the shah's rule, bringing the total ex-
ecuted since February to 460.
In the central town of Bakhar, a 70-
year-old man and a 75-year-old woman
were given 100 lashes each in public
for committing adultery. The man
also got one year in jail, press reports
said.
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