text: Kurdish group says two killed in Iraqi shelling . NICOSIA 1996-08-24 An Iraqi Kurdish guerrilla group on Saturday accused Iraqi government forces of killing two civilians in shelling in northern Iraq , the Iranian news agency IRNA reported . IRNA said it was monitoring a report from a radio station affiliated to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan ( PUK ) . " Iraqi army heavily shelled the Kanie Karzhala camp , west of Arbil , on Friday ... Two civilians were killed in the Iraqi bombing , " IRNA quoted the radio report as saying . The PUK-run radio on Friday said Iraqi heavy artillery was pounding its positions in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq but it gave no details of casualties . There was no independent confirmation of the reports . The rival Kurdistan Democratic Party ( KDP ) , which accuses Iran of supporting the PUK , said on Thursday that its forces had halted an Iranian-backed attack by thousands of PUK fighters . The United States said in Washington on Friday that it had brokered a ceasefire to end six days of fighting between the two main Kurdish factions and persuaded them to attend U.S.-mediated peace talks next month . The clashes , shattering a ceasefire negotiated last year by Washington , had threatened a U.S.-led peace plan to unite the Kurdish region against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein . U.S. , British and French planes have been patrolling the skies of northern Iraq since shortly after the 1991 Gulf War to shield Iraq 's Kurds from any attack by Iraqi troops .