Iraqi Forces Shell Kurdish Town

KIFREY, IRAQ - Iraqi forces shelled this village in the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq on Wednesday, and fighter jets of the U.S.-led coalition targeted Iraqi positions 100 miles north of Baghdad.<br> <br> Iraqi mortar and missile attacks a day earlier killed three civilians and wounded a dozen others in Kifrey, a village of 27,000 on the front line between Iraqi and Kurdish forces. Several Kurdish fighters were among the wounded.<br> <br> Although the Iraqis have lobbed shells at front line Kurdish villages, this was the first known concentrated artillery assault on the Kurds.<br> <br> Three-quarters of Kifrey&#39;s residents fled and artillery fire continued Wednesday, aimed mostly at a Kurdish bunker in the nearby village of Karez.<br> <br> Kurdish military commander Mola Bakhtiyar said the barrage Tuesday began after American aircraft launched airstrikes on Baghdad-controlled barracks across the front line.<br> <br> <br> The Iraqis retreated, and villagers and Kurdish fighters began moving in on their abandoned positions, seizing six military vehicles, dozens of light weapons and some artillery.<br> <br> &#34;As coalition forces get nearer to Iraqi cities, Saddam Hussein will react even more furiously than he has now,&#34; said Bakhtiyar, a leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.<br> <br> Bakhtiyar describes Kifrey&#39;s position as strategic - at a crossing of routes to the oil center Kirkuk, to Saddam&#39;s hometown and power base Tikrit, and to Baghdad, less than 100 miles to the south.<br> <br> In a statement read Wednesday on Iraqi state television, Saddam warned Kurdish leaders against cooperating with U.S. forces in northern Iraq. &#34;I advise you not to rush and do something that you&#39;ll regret so long as you know that this leadership and the government it leads in the face of invaders will remain,&#34; according to the statement, read by Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.

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