Iraqi-backed Kurds flee rivals' onslaught

Iraqi Kurdish forces fled an advance by their Kurdish rivals in fierce fighting that marred a renewed US attempt to bring the two warring parties together.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which last month got backing from Iraqi troops and tanks to take the main north Iraq city of Arbil from the rival group, withdrew in panic from the town of Ranya, which it had captured only at the weekend. Meanwhile, thousands of KDP fighters abandoned an assault on a strategic dam when they came under heavy artillery fire from the opposing Patriotic Union of Kurdistan militia. Reuter - Ranya