KOY SANJAK - Fighters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) yesterday overwhelmed a rival Kurdish militia group and seized the strategic northern Iraqi town of Koy Sanjak. Guerrillas cheered and waved KDP flags after forces from the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) fled to the Heibet Sultan mountain.
The fall of Koy Sanjak broke a partial PUK siege of the city of Irbil, northern Iraq's administrative centre, which was taken by the KDP fighting with Iraqi government forces in late August.