Word: talabani
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...between two men leading rival parties who are deeply jealous of each other. "This struggle for power is as personal as it can get," says a Pentagon analyst. When the Kurds held an election for an autonomous government to run Kurdistan in 1992, Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan split the vote, forcing them to accept coalition rule. Last May open warfare broke out between the rival leaders over a land dispute. In the ensuing free-for-all at least 2,000 Kurds were killed before the two sides agreed in November to hold...
Barzani has accused Talabani of stealing $14 million from the Kurdish treasury and being a "jash," or donkey, as Kurds label collaborators with Baghdad. Talabani claims Barzani is pocketing cash from customs fees the Kurds levy on the 10,000 bbl. of diesel fuel Iraq secretly ships through Kurd territory to Turkey every...
...army, the Kurds are threatening to annihilate themselves--because two rival leaders each hope to establish and control an independent Kurdistan overlapping the borders of Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran. Massoud Barzani, who leads the western half of the enclave, is shy, soft spoken and uncomfortable around foreigners. Jalal Talabani, who controls the east, is a garrulous jet-setter who mixes well at embassy parties. The only thing the two have in common is a long-standing hatred for each other. In an increasingly bitter showdown that has turned Kurd against Kurd, they are, says a Western diplomat in Ankara...
...Talabani's party is made up mainly of urban intellectuals and leftists, while Barzani, 48, is a parochial tribal chieftain wary of the West whose political base remains in the countryside. Over the years he has favored negotiation with Baghdad, while the 62-year-old Talabani wants confrontation. Talabani shares the dream of other Kurds of an independent Kurdistan that includes parts of Iraq, Iran and Turkey. When U.S. officials visit Talabani, he regularly serves them turkey for dinner so they will not miss the message that he wants to nibble at his neighbor...
Early in March, an elaborate coup plot against Saddam was hatched that required the cooperation of the feuding Kurds. But within hours of the attack, the entire plan collapsed. In the first stage, as planned, Talabani's 10,000 troops launched an opening skirmish against the Iraqi army's 5th Corps along the Kurdish border near Kirkuk. Barzani, who has a force of equal strength, refused to get involved in the coup. Shi'ite insurgents next failed to undertake their strike against Iraqi forces in the southern part of the country, and an Iraqi armored division that was to mutiny...