Iraq: Dozens killed as US special forces overrun 'terrorist' camps (Ansar al-Islam Camp )

Dozens killed as US special forces overrun 'terrorist' camps

By Patrick Cockburn in Sherawa, northern Iraq

31 March 2003

US special forces working with Kurdish militia have over-run the base camps of Ansar al-Islam, a small Kurdish Islamic group which achieved sudden notoriety when the US administration claimed it was linked both to al-Qa'ida and Saddam Hussein.

About 100 US Special Forces and 6,000 Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) peshmerga started their attack last Friday against an Ansar force of 700, which for several years has occupied a narrow wedge of hills between the eastern Kurdish city of Halabja and the Iranian border.

Barham Salih, the prime minister of PUK-controlled eastern Kurdistan, said: "It was a very tough battle. You're talking about a bunch of terrorists who are very well-trained and well-equipped." He said 17 of his men and up to 150 Ansar militants were killed.

Ansar has been a thorn in the side of the PUK government, fiercely defending its handful of villages close to the border with Iran, but in Kurdish politics it was a small player.

It came to international attention when Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, claimed before the UN Security Council that Ansar had connections simultaneously to al-Qa'ida and Baghdad. But it was always an unlikely alliance.

General Powell said an al-Qa'ida member called Abu Musab Zarqawi had established a "poison and explosive training factory" on Ansar territory. He also said the Iraqi government had "an agent in the most senior levels of Ansar".

The claim that Ansar was linked to al-Qa'ida was encouraged by the PUK, which wanted to get rid of a local irritant, and could point to some 100 Arabs within the group who had previously been in Afghanistan. But Mr Salih said Ansar had no link to Baghdad because the Iraqi Arabs with the group were clearly anti-Saddam Hussein.

In the few villages it held, Ansar had instituted an Islamic regime similar to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan where television, dancing, girls' schools and women appearing without a veil were prohibited. There was little firm evidence, however, that Ansar was connected to al Qa'ida.

The site alleged to have been the poison factory turned out to be controlled by another Islamic group.

Mullah Krekar, the leader of Ansar, in exile in Norway, denied any link with President Saddam, whom he frequently denounced. "As a Kurdish man I believe he is our enemy," he said. He also denied that a senior Ansar Iraqi Arab commander called Abu Wa'el was linked to Iraqi intelligence, describing him as "a toothless diabetic, too old feeble to harm anyone".

Ansar could not have survived without Iranian support, probably channelled through the Revolutionary Guards just across the Iranian border. In recent months, however, aid has been reduced or cut off because Iran fears complications with the US.

In an authoritative report on Ansar published earlier in the year, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said prophetically: "Should Ansar lose its Iranian sponsor, it would be deprived of its critical fall-back area across the border, and in the face of concerted PUK assault, possibly with US assistance, it would not be likely to survive as a visible fighting force."

Meanwhile on the front line north of Kirkuk, Iraqi forces have fallen back seven or eight miles to a ridge defending the city. The withdrawal, completed over the weekend, was carefully planned and retreating troops left nothing in their bunkers. Troops to the east of Kirkuk also pulled back to less exposed positions nearer the city.

Abu Wahil is an old guy, by the way. Not a sprightly Fedeyeen.

Ansar al-Islam’s leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002

Jordan has requested from Dutch authorities the extradition of the head of Ansar al-Islam, an Iraqi Kurdish Islamic radical group, Mala Krekar, said Reuters on 14 September, quoting a Dutch Justice Ministry source.

Mala Krekar, 47, whose real name is Najumuddin Faraj Ahmad, was arrested on Thursday, 12 September, at Amsterdam's Schiphol international airport while on a stopover on a journey from Teheran, to the Norwegian capital, Oslo. According to media reports, Mala Krekar was detained and expelled by Iranian authorities.

Mala Krekar was granted refugee status in Norway in 1991, which has recently been revoked by Norwegian authorities. His family still lives in Norway.

The Dutch Justice Ministry source did not say why Jordan seeks Mala Krekar’s extradition. Last year, the Saudi newspaper, Al-Watan reported on 23 November 2001, involvement of Jordanian nationals in the Islamic radical group. The newspaper said four Arab afghans of Jordanian origin were killed late September 2001 in Iraqi Kurdistan. They were members of Jund al-Islam group, or Soldiers of Islam, which became Ansar al-Islam later in December of the same year. SEE OUR NEWS BULLETIN DATED 26 NOVEMBER 2001

A veteran of the Afghan war against the Soviet occupation, Mala Krekar was one of the military figures of the Islamic Movement in Kurdistan, IMK, during late 1990s. Following splits in the movement last year, Mala Krekar and his followers left IMK in December 2001 and joined the newly established Kurdish Islamic radical group, Jund al-Islam. The two groups formed Ansar al-Islam, with Mala Krekar as the group’s leader.

Jund al-Islam, was established on 1 September 2001, controlled a strip on the Iranian border, comprising several villages and two townships, Biyara and Tawela. The group immediately declared “holy war” on Iraqi Kurdish secular ruling parties. On 23 September 2001, they attacked and slaughtered more than 40 fighters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, which led to a wide range armed confrontation between the two sides.

Jund al-Islam was reported, by PUK officials and London-based Arabic newspapers, to have Afghan Arabs in their ranks, as well as Kurds who served in Afghanistan and Chechnya. It was also reported that the group was financed by Al-Qaeda organization and its members were trained in Afghanistan.

Earlier this year, Kurdish media sources reported that Iraqi intelligence services are involved in guiding Jund al-Islam, through its agents, who operate secretly in the region.

An Iraqi intelligence officer, who was arrested by PUK forces, and interviewed last June in a PUK prison in Suleimaniya, told “Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch” that a leading figure of Jund al-Islam was actually a senior Iraqi intelligence officer.

He said, “following the fighting between the PUK and Jund al-Islam, the Mukhabarat [Iraqi intelligent Service] instructed me to search for someone. I don’t know his full name, but they said that he is called Abu Wa’il, an Iraqi national, and that he is a high-ranking officer, who belongs to our service; and that in addition to your usual mission, we want you to let us know what has happened to him, has he been able to escape, has he been killed, or has he been captured [by the Kurds] and handed over to the Americans? … Through my network I could discover that he escaped. I passed the information to the Mukhabarat. It seemed that the liaison network between Abu Wa’il and Baghdad was cut. Abu Wa’il’s case was dealt with by Mukhabarat at the highest level [in Baghdad]. His case was not like an ordinary agent getting missed … The general director of Mukhabarat was personally following the issue”.

Another prisoner, a Kurdish member of Ansar al-Islam, arrested by PUK last spring, also signalled the presence of Abu Wa’il among the group. He told “Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch” that Abu Wa’il, “was a leading figure of Jund al-Islam, and was, among other missions, in charge of organizing the Afghan Arabs of the group who came from Afghanistan. As far as I know, Abu Wa’il, along with Abdullah al-Shaf’i [leader of Jund al-Islam before the merger with Mala Krekar’s group] travelled at least twice to Afghanistan”.

Ansar al-Islam is also believed to be behind the recent series of bomb attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan. The two major political parties, which rule over the Kurdish-controlled region of Iraq, the PUK and Kurdistan Democratic Party, KDP, have recently established a joint anti-terror operation command centre to combat terrorist attempts in Kurdistan region.

“Whoever is behind this group, it is widely believed here in Iraqi Kurdistan that the sudden emergence of this radical faction is meant to destabilize the Iraqi Kurdish experience of self-rule”, a Kurdish source told Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, on condition of anonymity.

“It is more than four years now that the [Iraqi Kurdish-administered] region witnesses stability and a significant degree of economic development. So, one should look at the sides which have interest in destabilizing this situation. I don’t see why Al-Qaeda wants to undermine our region if it is not with the support of the enemies of Iraqi Kurds”, said the source.

Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.