Kurdistan Observer

Two Kurdish guerrillas have been killed in gun battles between rival factions in breakaway northern Iraq, a senior official in the regional adminstration told Reuters on Sunday.

Fighting broke out early on Saturday after about 10 members of the Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PCDK) entered territory controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), said Adnan Mufti, the PUK deputy prime minister in the enclave's regional government.

The PCDK is a recent offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a rebel group that waged a 17-year-long campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. More than 30,000 people died in that conflict.

"We are trying to deal with them (PKK fighters) by keeping them in their area and by asking them not to make any movement to our side," Mufti said in an interview with Reuters.

The PUK and its rival the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) wrested control of northern Iraq from President Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Gulf War. They have since jointly run the Kurdish enclave, protected by U.S. warplanes patrolling a no-fly zone.

The region's fragile peace has been threatened by the emergence of some 5,000 PKK guerrillas, encamped on Kandil mountain which abuts PUK territory.

The PKK withdrew from Turkey to northern Iraq after commander Abdullah Ocalan was sentenced to death by a Turkish court in 1999. Fighting between PKK rebels and soldiers in Turkey has since dropped significantly, although the army regularly pursues the PKK across the border into Iraq.

PUK chief Jalal Talabani and his KDP counterpart Massoud Barzani have both pledged to neutralise the PKK, seen as a destabilising force in volatile northern Iraq.

"We believe they (PKK fighters) should struggle in their own area, they are strangers here in Iraqi Kurdistan," Mufti said, adding the incursion was a breach of a two-year-old agreement between the PUK and PKK that the rebels would remain in their Kandil mountain stronghold.

"They are here only to make problems for us. We have a lot of problems keeping our area safe to be ready for any new changes to protect our people," he said, referring to mounting speculation the United States could launch an offensive against Baghdad for allegedly developing weapons of mass destruction.

Mufti did not comment on whether the PUK had sent reinforcements to the area where Turkish Kurd rebels are based.

But Europe-based Mezopotamya News Agency, which has close ties with PKK, said on Sunday both sides had deployed forces and warned of fresh violence.

PKK leadership said earlier this year it was regrouping under a new name, KADEK, to show it was abandoning its armed struggle. It said the PCDK would serve as a new political party that would be active in northern Iraq, Turkey and Iran.

That announcement came after the European Union placed the PKK on a list of organisations it considers "terrorist" groups.