Traveling eastward in trucks, taxis and even old Mercedes sedans, a Kurdish faction backed by President Saddam Hussein chased after a rival Kurdish group Monday in an apparent military rout.

Fearing for their safety, several thousand civilians fled northeastern towns as the Kurdistan Democratic Party, an ally of the Iraqi military, pressed its offensive against the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.The United States has made clear it has no plans to take sides in the fighting between the Kurdish factions. And with Saddam's forces backing it up, the KDP seems headed for a sweeping victory in northern Iraq.

If this happens, Saddam will effectively have influence over northern Iraq for the first time since U.S.-led forces established a Kurdish "safe haven" there after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

A long convoy of KDP fighters headed east Monday with strips of yellow ribbon - the faction's color - tied to their guns. They were in hot pursuit of their retreating and outgunned foe, the PUK.

KDP troops encountered a few sniper ambushes and quickly responded with heavy artillery fire into hills covered with dry golden grass.

Their immediate target was Dokan, a hub for both electric and water systems in northern Iraq. Gunners shelled the lightly defended town and assembled a few miles away as they prepared to seize control.

Iraqi forces appeared to be moving behind the front-line KDP fighters, but the Iraqis were not playing a major role in the fighting, according to most accounts.

If the KDP takes Dokan, it is then likely to go after the city of Sulaymaniyah, less than 60 miles to the southeast and the last major PUK stronghold in the region.

U.N. guards in Sulaymaniyah said most of the Patriotic Union leadership apparently had fled, possibly across the border to Iran.

PUK leader Jalal Talabani, however, remained in Sulaymaniyah. He made an urgent appeal for help but seemed resigned to the fact that the Americans would not come to his rescue.

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"The United States is not in a position that can obstruct a (KDP) invasion, which is a kind of support indirectly to Saddam," he said.

He also predicted that KDP leader Massoud Barzani would come to regret his alliance with Saddam after the fighting was finished.

The Patriotic Union reported that thousands of people fled the towns captured Sunday, and thousands more were fleeing Sulaymaniyah, fearing an imminent assault on the city.

"There is a huge exodus from the city as the Iraqi army makes preparations to attack," said Shazad Saib, a PUK official.

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