Renewed street fighting kills 30 in Iranian town

          
          Renewed street fighting kills 30 in Iranian town
          The Sass (5837-i 985); Apr 22, 1979; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Baltimore Sass, The (1837-1988)
          pg. A2
          Renewed street fighting
          kills 30 -in Iranian town
          Tehran, ‘ n (lteiiterl—Renewed
          street lighting erupted yesterday in the
          small northwest Iranian town of Nagha-
          deh. with reports of up to 30 killed in 24
          hours.
          The reports from the town of 40,000
          people near the Turkish and li-aqi borders
          were scanty and it was not clear whether
          Ihe fighting was between locals of Kurdish
          and Turkish origin or differing Muslim or
          political groups. ,. . - ,
          Most Kurds art Sunni Muslims while
          most Iranians of Turkish origin belong to
          lhe Shia Muslim faith.
          Everything in the town was closed
          down and barricades blocked streets as
          fighters dug in to bold their positions. The
          Tebran evening newspaper Kuj ht:n quot-
          ed reports of Iranian Air Force Phantom
          fighters buzzing Naghadeh yesterday. but
          military spokesmen said later the armed
          forces had received no orders from Teh-
          ran to intervene
          The state radio, the “Voice of the ls-
          lamic Republic,” said the clashes were
          continuing today. Residents of Orumiyeh
          Iformerly Rezai,vell), the capital of the
          province of West Azarbaijan in which
          Naghadeh is situated, spoke of bodies'
          lying in the street because it was too dan-
          gerous for ambulances to pick them up.
          The fighting flared yesterday after a
          gunman opened fire on a Ineeting of the
          Kurdistan Democratic party IKDP) which
          wants more self-rule for tIle Kurds within
          a federal - • —- .. -. -.-
          Panic shooting broke out as. various
          groups took cover ‘and the battle lines
          were unclear. A local doctor yesterday pot
          the death toll at 24 with' 50 wounded. A lo-
          cal Kurdish leader” told one reporter that
          30 persons had been killed.
          The Iranian revolutionary authorities
          have already been facedwith outbreaks of
          fighting in two other border areas—in the
          Kurdish town of Sanandaj and in the Tur-
          koman town of Gonbad-e-Kavus in the
          northeast near the Soviet frontier.
          Clashes were also reported Friday in
          the southern oil town of Ahadan as groups
          of youths wielding knives and clubs at-
          tacked a sit-in of unemployed workers de-
          mandiOg jobs on the municipal buildings.
          Tehran newspapers said the youths also
          attacked the local headquarters of the
          Marxist-Leninist Fedayeen guerrillas and
          occupied the building, injuring several
          people.
          In Tehran, four persons were reported
          killed and two hurt Thursday when two
          revolutionary committees clashed after
          one was ordered to purge members of the
          other, newspapers reported.
          Removal of violent elements from
          some of the committees, set up as branch-
          es of the revolutionary leadership, was
          one of the demands made by a leading re-
          ligious figure. Ayatollah Mabmoud Tal-
          eghani, earlier this week after he went in-
          to hiding in protest against abuse of power
          since the revolution. -
          But Ayatollah Taleghani stressed in a
          statement on the state radio yesterday
          that he was.not at odds with revolutionary
          hero Ayatollah Ruhol lab Khomeini. ‘Op-
          posing the leadership of the Imam lleaderl
          Khomeini is opposing the Islamic reli-
          - ion,” Ayatollah Talegliani said.
          But helarned agàinst'”ene •s and
          spies” infiltrating the youth ‘of and
          exacerbating the country's exist prob-
          lems such as unemployment and the dis-
          rupted economy.
          ,,A t. Army major. was executed last
          night in the city of Khorramshahr, bring-
          ing to t4lI the.total number of executions
          since the revolution.
          But for the first time—in the Western
          town of Kermansliah —a revolutionary
          court postponed the execution of an Army
          private after protests by his fellow sol-
          diers from the local Army barracks.
          The Asi ociated Press quoted Saturday
          newspapers as reporting that soldiers in
          the western town of Kermànshah refused
          - In turn over to executioners a fellow en-
          listed man condemned to death for shoot.
          ing Cnti-shah'demonstrators.
          In the first reported incident of serious
          resistance to a summary decision by
          Iran's Islamic courts, the soldiers de
          manded that their comrade's life be
          spared saying he was merely carrying Out
          his commanding officer's orders,'press re-
          ports said.
          An Islamic court on Thursday convict-
          ed Tajali Gorganli, who served in Ker-
          manshah, of killing anti-shah demonstra-
          tors. The soldier asked f or ‘and received a
          24-hour stay of execution: so hIs parents
          could bebrought'from'hls hometown fora
          last visit, the reports said. After the viSit
          Friday, th&soldiers atSalehahad barracks
          where Gorganli is imprisoned refused to
          turn him over for ‘execution, and staged
          pro lestdémonstralions
          Foreigners who bad been buoyed by re-
          pórthearlier this week that the govern-
          moM might allow one plant to produce al-
          coholic drinks for non .Musllms had their
          hOpes dashed when the co ! 1mcrce. Minis-
          try detñdëd against themove,
          Reproduced with permission otthe coppright oweer. Fsrther reproduction prohibited without permission.