(AINA) -- Attacks against Assyrian civilians in northern Iraq and southern Turkey by various armed Kurdish groups have increased in recent weeks.

According to a news release by the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) in northern Iraq, fighters from the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) ambushed seven unarmed Assyrian civilians from Mangesh, Duhok on December 13, 1997. Two of the Assyrians were immediately killed in the initial volley of gunfire. Five others were seriously wounded. The PKK guerillas reportedly approached the remaining five wounded Assyrians and, seeing that they were still alive, subsequently shot four of them dead as they lay bleeding. Those killed were all residents of Mangesh and included Slewo Khoshaba, Samir Esho, Majid Shimon, Arkhan Hermiz, Salem Yousif and Najid Mikho. One woman, Wardia Yousif the wife of Najid Mikho, survived with a serious leg wound until December 26th when she too died.

This latest attack follows an earlier attack against an Assyrian man and his wife belonging to the Syrian Orthodox Church in Mzezakh, Turkey. On September 25, 1997 Kurdish fighters entered the home of Mr. Iskandar Araz and his wife and brutally killed them without cause.

A press release by the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan on December 21,1997 denied PKK culpability in the December 13th attack against the seven Assyrians. The press release stated that the attack was "staged by the Turkish army together with the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) on the Assyrian village of Mankish in the Duhok region..." The press release further added that "the statements accusing the PKK of this dirty provocation were put out from Duhok which is under the control of the KDP."

Over the past few years, Assyrian reports from northern Iraq and southern Turkey have detailed a pattern of escalating attacks designed to intimidate and terrorize the Assyrian civilian population of northern Mesopotamia by all of the armed Kurdish factions. The United Nations and international human rights organizations have documented that in southern Turkey alone, Assyrian villages are alternately attacked by PKK guerillas demanding aid in their war against Turkey and by progovernment Kurdish village guards as well as the Turkish military seeking retribution. According to the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO) over 30 Assyrians have been killed over the past few years. Different Kurdish groups have burned numerous villages. Scores of young girls have been abducted, raped, and forced to convert to Islam. As a result of the ongoing turmoil, less than 10,000 Assyrians remain in their ancestral homes out of a population of 130,000 just twenty years ago. Typically, Kurdish groups as well as the Turkish military involved in attacks against Assyrians accuse other Kurdish groups of responsibility.

In the United Nations Special Rapporteur Report on Religious Intolerance, Mr. Abelfattah Amor summarized the state of the Assyrians in Turkey: "In a communication dated 5 September 1994, the Special Rapporteur transmitted the following observations to the government of Turkey: They (Assyro-Chaldeans) are also reported to be victims of regular attacks by armed individuals and groups who not only rob them of their property and abduct their daughters, but also perpetrate murder, thereby creating an atmosphere of fear, apparently with the aim of forcing them to leave their villages. Thus, since 1975, more than 100,000 Assyro-Chaldeans have left the country and only 10,000 remain."

In northern Iraq, both the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the KDP have been responsible for murders of Assyrians as well as assassinations of Assyrian political leaders. According to Amnesty International's February 1995 report on northern Iraq, "The security apparatuses of the KDP, Rekkhistine Taybeti, and that of the PUK, Dezgay Zanyari, are said to have units akin to assassination squads, whose members receive orders from senior party officials. There is also widespread conviction that such unlawful and deliberate killings could not have been perpetrated without the knowledge, consent, or acquiescence of the leaders of these two parties, to whom the security and intelligence apparatuses are ultimately responsible. The names of individuals alleged to be members of assassination squads within the KDP and PUK have been submitted to Amnesty International, including by officials of both parties who supplied information about the other's security and intelligence activities." Amnesty International also disclosed "details of extensive surveillance operations of named individuals, as well as references to killings and attempted killings by the Islamic Movement of Iraqi Kurdistan (IMIK)."

In addition, land expropriations continue with over 50 villages remaining illegally and forcibly occupied by Kurds belonging to various groups. Abduction of young girls with subsequent rape and forced conversion to Islam have also been perpetrated by all Kurdish groups.

In an interview with the Assyrian International News Agency, Assyrians who had recently visited northern Iraq, suggested that the general belief in the area is that the various Kurdish armed factions are pursuing a policy of intimidation of the civilian population, in order to complete the ethnic cleansing of the Assyrians from their ancestral homeland. A familiar pattern of deflecting accountability from one Kurdish group to another was noted by Assyrians whereby the PUK blames the KDP who blames the PKK who blames the Turks, etc. One Assyrian speaking on condition of anonymity, in order to not endanger relatives remaining in northern Iraq, responded to questions regarding the United Nations sponsored "Safe Haven" designed to protect Iraqi minorities from the excesses of the Iraqi central government by saying "Safe Haven? Safe for whom? Safe from whom? They are all trying to eliminate us!"