11.  Some Kurdish opposition groups have defended the general.

12.  The king also spoke with Kurdish opposition figures but there was no word on the outcome of those conversations.

13.  The Iraqi National Congress is a coalition of Shiite Muslim, Sunni and Kurdish opposition factions united against Saddam.

14.  The United States calculates that a unified Kurdish opposition within northern Iraq would help destabilize the Baghdad regime of Saddam Hussein.

15.  U.S. officials and Kurdish opposition forces said they were skeptical.

16.  In Baghdad, however, an Iraqi official on Tuesday renewed offers of a dialogue with the Kurdish opposition.

17.  Iran has closed its borders with Turkey to Kurdish opposition groups, Interior Minister Ali Mohammad Besharati said Thursday.

18.  Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday sent a present of two million school books to the north of the country controlled by Kurdish opposition groups.

19.  Iraq has denied reports from the Kurdish opposition that Saddam had massed his forces near the region controlled by the Kurds and that the forces were shelling Kurdish towns.

20.  Iraq urged the Kurdish opposition in northern Iraq on Friday to rid themselves of US and British protection because the West was only looking after its own interests.