11.   Burns noted that the United States has tried repeatedly to mediate between the two Kurdish factions, most recently in a conference in London.

12.   But rivalry between the two Kurdish factions inside the zone have led one to reconcile with Iraq and another to forge at least a temporary alliance with Iran.

13.   But then Saddam intervened in conflicts between Kurdish factions in northern Iraq, and the United States responded by bombing military targets in southern Iraq.

14.   But while they were protected by the no-fly zone, the Kurdish factions fell to quarreling and the CIA completely mishandled the situation.

15.   By sending his tanks to help one Kurdish faction against another, he was not transgressing the letter of the international rules that tie him down.

16.   Clinton said Iraqi troops, which had joined one Kurdish faction in battling another last weekend at Irbil, appeared to be withdrawing and dispersing.

17.   Crude oil plunged in late trading after the State Department said fighting between Kurdish factions in northern Iraq stopped, easing concern that Middle East exports might be disrupted.

18.   Diplomatically, the United States treated the fighting between the two Kurdish factions as relatively minor.

19.   Earlier this month, renewed fighting erupted between the two main rival Kurdish factions, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

20.   Expectations that inflation will remain low were helped when crude oil prices plunged on reports that Kurdish factions in northern Iraq reached a cease-fire accord.