THOUSANDS of Kurds fled fierce fighting in northern Iraq yesterday as the Kurdish faction backed by Iraq captured two strategic towns held by its rivals in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Refugees raced for the Iranian border in coaches, trucks, mini buses, cars and even bulldozers loaded with beds, blankets, utensils and television sets.
Besieged PUK guerrillas pleaded for US help after their lines of defence crumbled under an assault by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) which captured first Degala and then the town of Koi Sanjaq in a matter of hours.
Warning that President Saddam Hussein's army was now preparing an assault on the last major PUK stronghold of Sulaymaniyah, the PUK appealed for international help to halt what it called an "Iraqi onslaught".
There was no independent confirmation of direct Iraqi involvement in the clashes, which the KDP denied.
An aid worker said more than 800 people had fled from Koi Sanjaq and that fierce fighting was continuing around the town for control of Haybat Sultan, a mountain peak controlling access to Sulaymaniyah.
UN relief agencies in Sulaymaniyah decided yesterday to halt operations for three days. Kurds in the area spat at UN cars because of the UN's failure to intervene and stop the fighting.
The PUK leader, Mr Jalal at Talabani fled to Sulaymaniyah after his base in the main Kurdish city of Arbil, 200km to the northwest, fell to President Saddam's army and the KDP on August 31st.
The fall of Koi Sanjaq yesterday came hard on the heels of the KDP's capture of the strategic Degala area further north, where the rival Kurdish factions have been battling since Thursday.
A KDP statement said: "The operation is carried out by KDP forces to foil the PUK threat against Arbil. There is absolutely no Iraqi military involvement and participation in the operation," it said, adding that PUK forces were "demoralised and have sustained heavy losses".
US warships and warplanes fired 44 cruise missiles at military targets in southern Iraq last Tuesdays And Wednesday to punish Saddam for sending troops into the Kurdish "safe haven" set up after the 1991 Gulf War.
In Washington, the US Defence Secretary, Mr William Perry, said the US would protect its regional allies and the flow of oil, but would not get involved in the Kurdish "civil war" in Iraq.
At the same time, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen John Shalikashvili, said the US would "not stand by idly" if President Saddam did not withdraw completely from Kurdish inhabited northern Iraq.
Emphasising the need to "contain" President Saddam, both men called the operation a success. The US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, told the BBC yesterday that the US military action "seemed to have stopped the invasion of the north."
Both the Iraqi government and the KDP condemned Turkish plans to set up a security zone inside northern Iraq to stop cross border raids by Turkish Kurd separatist guerrillas.
Turkey said on Saturday that preparations were in place for a security zone across the border in north Iraq to prevent the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) taking advantage of the power vacuum in the region.
The Turkish Foreign Minister, Ms Tansu Ciller, said yesterday it would involve the installation of a sophisticated electronic system along the mountainous 330km border.
On Saturday, Iraq said it fired two surface to air missiles at US warplanes over Iraqi territory, but failed to hit either.