IRAN REPORTS OFFENSIVE AS IRAQ THREATENS AIR RAIDS
Iranian troops are fighting on two
widely separated fronts in a new offensive in the mountains of
Kurdistan in northern Iraq, Tehran's IRNA news agency said.
    Baghdad war communiques made no mention of fresh fighting
on northern or southern sectors, but a military spokesman
threatened a resumption of air raids on Iranian towns.
    IRNA, monitored by the BBC in London, said Iran had seized
several strategic heights in the northern assault, which
started on Tuesday. It said at least 2,000 Iraqi troops had
been killed, wounded or captured. The offensive is in the Haj
Omran area of Kurdistan, scene of fierce fighting in 1983.
    Tehran radio reported last night that Iranian forces were
in control of four mountain areas, bringing several Iraqi towns
with troop concentrations within artillery range.
    In the south, IRNA said, Iranian forces captured several
Iraqi defence posts east of Iraq's second city, Basra, in a
drive north along the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
    Today is the end of a two-week-long Iraqi moratorium on air
raids declared on condition that Iran stop attacking Iraqi
territory and shelling its towns.
    Iraq's war spokesman said Iran had kept up its attacks and
had made "boasts of illusory victories."
 REUTER
