Kurdish chief's death brings civil war nearer

The killing of a senior Kurdish tribal leader may be a signal that civil war is about to return to Iraqi Kurdistan which is protected by American, British and French aircraft. In fighting over the last two years 3,000 people have been killed and wounded.

Tensions increased in the mountain enclave, home to 3 million Kurds, after a night attack last month by the Kurdish Democratic Party on the village of Kalaqin killed Hussein Agha al-Sourchi, the chief of the Sourchi tribe, and at least 15 other people. Another 48 members of the tribe are still missing.

The assault on 16 June by 3,000 militia men, savage even by the standards of warfare in Kurdistan, may indicate that the two main Kurdish parties are squaring up for a renewed round of fighting over control of some $130- 150m in aid which Kurdistan is to get from Iraqi oil sales in the next six months under the United Nation's oil-for-food plan.

Iraqi Kurdistan, from which Iraqi troops withdrew in 1991, is divided between the KDP of Massoud Barzani, which holds the north-west of the enclave, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Jalal al-Talabani, which holds the south-east. The attack on the Sourchi, who live in an area held by Mr Barzani, apparently happened because one of its leading members, Zaid Omar Sourchi, was accused by the KDP of spying for the PUK.

"It is an unbelievable thing to happen," Jawhar al-Sourchi, the son of the dead leader, said. "My father was expecting Massoud Barzani to come to lunch, not to attack him. He was sleeping in his house protected by just three or four bodyguards when they attacked." He says the KDP used artillery and multiple rocket launchers.

During the fighting, Hussein Agha clambered on to the flat roof of his house, presumably to shoot back. "He was hit by a rocket," Jawhar said, and later shot to death as he lay wounded. "His men were given one hour to bury him along with other bodies," he said. The survivors were taken away and 48 are still missing.

Laith Kubba, an Iraqi opposition intellectual, says: "The $150m from the UN could be used either to set up a civil administration in Kurdistan or as the occasion for renewed fighting as the main parties try to get control of the money." Jawhar says that the issue of taking revenge is not really in his hands, but that the honour of the Sourchi tribe is at stake and it can put 10,000 armed men into the field.

A fresh outbreak of the Kurdish civil war would be embarrassing for the United States, which has been trying to mediate between the KDP and PUK. The vacuum of power in Kurdistan has led both Iran and Turkey to increase their involvement in what they consider an area of critical strategic interest. The internecine fighting has also discredited the idea of the self-determination of the Iraqi Kurds who have fought the government in Baghdad for more than 50 years.

The cause of the civil war has been the tribalism, warlordism and poverty of Kurdish society. Hitherto the main source of revenue has been taxes on all sales to Turkey and profits from smuggling to Iran, both largely controlled by Mr Barzani. Mr Talabani has less money but holds the two main Kurdish cities, Arbial and Sulaymaniyah.

The Sourchi tribe live close to a strategic pass which carries one of Kurdistan's few roads. The KDP presumably believed they were being spied on since they demanded the handover of radio equipment. But the scale of their attack suggests that they see the Sourchis as potential enemies who might betray them if the civil war resumes.