Hussein’s Forces Repelled

Iraqi Kurds said Thursday they repelled a two-pronged thrust by more than 3,000 of Saddam Hussein’s forces into the region of northern Iraq where Turkish troops are simultaneously trying to wipe out Kurdish rebel camps.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of Iraq’s two main Kurdish rebel groups, said the attempted invasion followed several hours of indiscriminate artillery bombardment of residential districts in the cities of Irbil and Kani-Qirzala.

Dozens of homes were destroyed, it said in a statement sent to The Associated Press in Nicosia. It mentioned no casualties.