SUMMARY

What started as a personal dispute between members of IMK (Islamic Movement of Kurdistan) and PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan), resulting in the death of two PUK members, subsequently escalated to a conflict between the groups in 1992. In order to revenge the death of its members PUK guerrillas attacked IMK, killing some 27 fighters. While no major clashes were reported for a whole year after the incident, new fighting broke out towards the end of 1993. A third Kurdish party, KDP (Kurdish Democratic Party), tried to mediate between the parties. A ceasefire agreement was reached in early 1994 but was broken later in the year.

Most of the clashes between IMK and PUK were straight military attacks. The violence was located to the Kurdish region of Iraq but in the attacks in August 1994 the IMK attack was supported by Iranian artillery fire.

The non-state conflict between IMK and PUK is first included in UCDP data in 1992. In August of that year violent clashes had resulted in over 25 battle-related deaths.