ANTI Baghdad Kurdish rebels yesterday retook the Kurdish stronghold of Sulaimaniya from the Kurdish Democratic Party, a faction aligned with President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The KDP accused Iran of intervening on the side of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in the conflict in northern Iraq.
A source at the UN co ordinator's headquarters in Baghdad said the PUK had taken over Sulaimaniya from the KDP of Mr Massoud Barzani.
Mr Barzani accused Iranian forces of helping the PUK to retake the key city and called for international aid against "Iran's brutal invasion", according to Turkey's Anatolian news agency.
"Since October 10th, Iran has started a major invasion of Sulaimaniya province in collaboration with Jalal Talabani," Mr Barzani said.
But Mr Talabani's PUK denied being aided by Tehran. "We would like to emphatically point out that there is no Iranian involvement or support for our forces in this heroic war of liberation," it said in a statement.
Baghdad urged the rival Kurdish groups to stay away from outside powers, in an apparent reference to Iran.
President Saddam chaired a meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council and leaders of the ruling Ba'ath Party to discuss developments in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The official Iraqi News Agency (INA), quoting a spokesman for the meeting, said Iraqi leaders urged the warring Kurdish factions to halt fighting and resume peace talks with Baghdad.
"We call on the parties which have resumed fighting to keep away the foreign powers and not deal with them. We also call on them to start talks between themselves.
"The leadership is ready to extend an invitation to all parties regardless of their background and our opinion or evaluation of this faction or the other, for dialogue in Baghdad, under the sponsorship of the state," INA said.
In Damascus, Mr Bayan Jabr, representative of the Shia Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is aligned with the PUK, said the Kurdish group planned to retake the city of Arbil also.
The UN source said forces of the PUK leader, Mr Talabani, had also regained control of Chamchamal to the south and Darbandikhan to the east.
"The area from the Iranian border deep into Iraqi Kurdistan is now in Talabani's hands," the source said. All UN staff in Sulaimaniya were safe and the city was calm. It apparently fell without any armed struggle, he said.
"It is just a new day. KDP is out and PUK is in. Yesterday we had yellow flags, today we have green ones," the source said.
Reports reaching the UN office in Baghdad said KDP rebels had abandoned the city hours before the arrival of Talabani rebels. One source said he did not rule out a deal between the sides.