ANKARA Ñ The United States continues to encounter divisions among
the leaders of Iraqi opposition groups.
Western diplomatic sources said despite efforts by the administration
divisions persist between Kurdish groups in northern Iraq. The sources said
Kurdish groups remain unable to coordinate activities and agree on a
strategy for a post-Saddam Iraq.
The divisions come amid plans to convene a conference of Iraqi
opposition groups and defecting military officers in Europe. The parley
is expected to take place in Germany and is being organized by the
London-based Iraqi National Conference and the State Department.
The disputes concern the sharing of power and suspicion that the
United States will not topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the sources
said. They said groups in northern Iraq do not want to face a military
attack by a revived Saddam.
The divisions include Turkomans in Iraq who have looked toward Ankara
for support. Last week, Senan Ahmet Aga, the head of the Iraqi Turkoman
Front, met Turkish officials and urged Ankara to protect the ethnic Turkish
minority, said to compose three percent of the Iraqi population.
The Turkoman group said Kurdish groups, particularly the Kurdistan
Democratic Party, are preventing the opening of Turkoman schools in northern
Iraq. "We are faced with KDP prevention to opening our schools, buying
fields and other bureaucratic matters," Aga told the Ankara-based Turkish
Daily News on Friday.
On Saturday, Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries fired toward British and U.S.
fighter-jets during their patrol over the no-fly zone in southern Iraq. An
Iraqi military spokesman said the allied warplanes arrived from Saudi Arabia
and flew 25 sorties until they were dispersed by surface-to-air missiles.
