Kurds Report Heavy Attack by Iraq Troops

NICOSIA, Cyprus —  Iraq attacked Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq with at least 60,000 troops backed by fighter-bombers and helicopter gunships dropping poison gas, a Kurdish spokesman said today.

“Heavy fighting is taking place between our forces and the Iraqi army on all fronts” in the mountains of northeast Iraq, the official of the Kurdish Democratic Party said in a telephone interview.

He said the “unprecedented” Iraqi offensive, in which villages have been burned to the ground, was launched Monday all across the 4,000 square miles of Kurdish-held Iraqi territory.

“The army is deploying at least 60,000 troops, with tanks, aircraft, helicopter gunships, artillery and chemical weapons,” he said. “The army is burning down villages and killing people on sight and leaving carnage behind.” The official, based in a West European capital, spoke on condition of anonymity for “security reasons.”

There was no way to confirm the report independently. But Kurdish guerrilla groups have been bracing for an all-out Iraqi offensive for several weeks.