ANKARA Ñ Turkey has sent tanks and troops to the Kurdish autonomous zone in northern Iraq to warn President Saddam Hussein against trying to recapture the area.

Turkish defense sources said Ankara has sent a message to Baghdad that Saddam will not be allowed to launch an offensive against the Kurds as they did in 1995. About 10,000 Iraqi troops are said to have been deployed near the northern city of Irbil and awaiting orders to move into Kurdistan.

"We are not interested in the dismantling of Iraq," a Turkish defense source said. "But we cannot allow an Iraqi attack on civilians that will result in a massive flight of Kurds into our territory."

The Turkish sources would not say whether the United States has approved such an operation. Turkish officials have complained that Washington and London have failed to coordinate sufficiently with Ankara in their dealings with the Kurds.

Earlier, Iraq protested to the United Nations that Turkey has deployed at least 90 tanks in Kurdistan.

On Wednesday, Kurdish sources said an Iraqi surface-to-air missile slammed into an empty school in the northern village of Zanboa. The sources said Iraqi gunners have deployed near the Kurdish zone and are firing wildly toward U.S. and British jets that patrol the no-fly zone in northern Iraq.

In Baghad, one person was injured in a Shi'ite opposition rocket attack on early Wednesday. The Iranian-supported Shi'ite opposition claimed responsiblity for firing 16 122 mm Katyusha rockets toward the presidential palace and other government buildings.

Over the last month, Turkish officials have met with Kurdish leaders both in Ankara and in northern Iraq. The meetings were part of Ankara's efforts to prevent a rift between the Kurdistan Democracy Party and the Kurdish Patriotic Union as well as assuage both that Turkey will protect Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq.

Kurdish sources said Iraqi agents are trying to sow discord between the two rival Kurdish groups. The Iraqis are also trying to incite the KDP, led by Massoud Barazani, against Turkey. Barazani supported the 1995 Iraqi military invasion of Kurdistan, which sparked the flight of thousands of U.S. intelligence operatives and their supporters from the north.

Turkish defense sources acknowledged disagreements between Ankara and the KDP over the response to the Kurdish Workers Party, which has tried to win influence in northern Iraq. Another dispute concerns Iraqi-Turkish trade through northern Iraq, particularly the operation of the pipeline from Kirkuk to Ceyhan.

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