The World - News from May 27, 1987

Kurdish guerrillas have captured a town in northern Iraq, the seventh to fall to rebel forces in heavy fighting over government efforts at resettlement, a rebel spokesman said in Athens. After the capture of Shaqlawa, Iraqi jets reportedly responded by dropping chemical bombs on three Kurdish villages near Kirkuk, a major Iraqi oil town about 150 miles north of Baghdad. The Kurds are fighting for greater autonomy as well as a greater share of Iraq’s oil wealth. The recent outbreak of fighting came when government troops tried to implement a plan to resettle Kurdish residents.