Gee, it seems that the radical terrorists have indeed set up shop inside Iraq...
Posted on 02/26/2003 3:00:01 PM PST by a_Turk
S U L A I M A N I A H, Iraq, Feb. 26 — A suicide bomber believed to be from Ansar al-Islam — a militant group that the United States says is connected to al Qaeda — detonated a vest bomb at a checkpoint in Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq today, killing five people, including himself.
The attack occurred near the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan military compound in the northern Iraqi town of Halabja, near the Iranian border. Among the dead was the unsuspecting driver of a Land Rover, who had minutes earlier stopped to pick up the bomber — who was hitchhiking.
A witness said the charge went off just as a guard at the checkpoint was reaching through the open window of the Land Rover for the bomber's identification.
Four suicide bombings have been attempted by Ansar al-Islam in Halabja in the past nine months. On three occasions, the would-be bombers were arrested.
The explosives-packed vests are believed to be made by an Ansar militant who goes by the moniker Ayub Afghani, but he popularly is called "the bomb-maker."
Earlier this month, one of the would-be attackers who was imprisoned in a PUK jail told ABCNEWS that his vest, which he displayed to the news team, was built by Afghani.
Today's suicide attack was the first one to succeed, and it caps a week of intense shelling near Halabja between Ansar guerrillas and PUK fighters, known as peshmergas.
Ansar al-Islam was established late in 2001 with the merger of two fundamentalist Kurdish groups in northern Iraq. Although its members are Sunni Muslims, they adhere to an ultra-orthodox ideology and believe in a rigid interpretation of the Koran.
Kurdish authorities say the group is made up of about 700 fighters, including more than 100 "Afghani Arabs," nicknamed for their military experience in Afghanistan.
Taliban-Like Atmosphere
The intense fighting in recent weeks has led to a flow of refugees affected by the conflict, according to Kurdish officials. PUK sources monitoring the refugee flow estimate that 500 families have fled villages in the war zone around Halabja in the past few days.
A Kurdish town with a history of conflict, Halabja was the site of a notorious 1988 gas attack by the Iraqi army, in which an estimated 5,000 civilians were killed. The Halabja gas attack was part of Operation Anfal, a campaign against the Kurds of northern Iraq during which an estimated 180,000 Kurds were killed.
Two days ago, Salwa Majeed and her husband and five children escaped from Biarrah, a hamlet on the Iranian border where Ansar al-Islam is said to have its headquarters.
Ansar al-Islam controls about a dozen villages, including Biarrah, in an enclave in the Surren Mountains near the Iranian border.
Majeed described a rigorous Taliban-like atmosphere in Biarrah, where music and video sales were banned, residents watch television with the volume muted and women were forced to wear gloves and the veil in public.
The Biarrah resident told ABCNEWS that her son was badgered to attend the mosque by Ansar al-Islam and that her husband was called an "apostate" when he told them he preferred to pray at home. One guerrilla reportedly chastised him, saying that "If you do not go to the mosque, God will not accept your prayers."
‘America Is Like a Spider’
She said the mosque in Biarrah had loudspeakers mounted outdoors, a common practice in Kurdish areas of Iraq, and she was able to hear many of the messages that were broadcast.
One of the sermons focused on a coordinated PUK/U.S. attack, which is rumored to be imminent: "America is like a spider that brings all the armies of the world [to its web], but we won't be afraid."
Like many Kurds in the region, Majeed has seen several wars and seemingly endless conflict. In the 1980s, she saw her village destroyed, then re-built, during the eight-year Iraq-Iran War. It was destroyed again during Saddam Hussein's Anfal assault against the Kurds in northern Iraq. After the 1991 Gulf War, she returned to Biarrah with her husband to re-build their lives.
But with the recent daily shelling by the PUK of Ansar positions, Majeed and her husband decided to flee to Halabja. "I haven't seen a day in my life without fighting," she told ABCNEWS.
Guerrillas Expect U.S. Attack
Majeed said that about 100 families had been permitted to leave Biarrah in the last week, but the guerrillas would not permit them to carry out some of their heavy belongings.
Her family had managed to escape with their prize possession, a carpet worth about $100. She said that Ansar guerrillas were taking over some of the abandoned houses.
According to one of the PUK commanders in Halabja, who was interviewed the day before the suicide bombing, PUK positions are receiving about 100 artillery and mortar rounds a day.
Burhan Saeed Sofi, the second-in-command of the Halabja military command center, the suspected target of today's bombing, said two of his fighters were wounded by shelling this week and one was killed about 10 days ago.
Sofi questioned whether U.S. bombing would be successful against Ansar forces, who are dug into fortified caves in the Surren mountains along the Iranian border.
The Ansar bunkers are only 500 meters from the border, according to Sofi, and he believed the guerrillas might be able to slip into Iran in small units once the expected U.S. airstrikes begin.
Gee, it seems that the radical terrorists have indeed set up shop inside Iraq...
ISLAMIC GROUP TIED TO IRAQ BLACKLISTED" by Stewart Bell ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Also sanctioned by Ottawa yesterday was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a warlord and former Afghan president allied with the Taliban and al-Qaeda who last fall declared a holy war to drive foreign troops out of Afghanistan. Canadian soldiers heading to Afghanistan this summer for a peacekeeping mission could face guerrilla attacks from Hekmatyar's forces, who have been battling U.S. and Afghan troops in recent weeks, Ansar al-Islam, also known as the Kurdistan Taliban or the Soldiers of God, was formed in Iraq with up to US$600,000 provided by Osama bin Laden, who gave his blessing to the group after its leaders visited Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001. Composed of ethnic Kurds, Arabs and Pashtuns, the group is the suspected link between Saddam and al-Qaeda. Although based in the Kurdish region outside Baghdad's control, Ansar closely works with al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime, which has an agent serving in the senior levels of the organization.") (February 26, 2003)
***WASHINGTON TIMES.com (AP): "WARLORD URGES MUSLIMS TO ATTACK TROOPS" by Kathy Gannon (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Afghan rebel commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar echoed Osama bin Laden's call for suicide attacks against Americans and said he is proud the United States has branded him a terrorist, according to a statement obtained yesterday. Calling the United States the "big Satan of the world," Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister, also vowed jihad (holy war) against U.S. troops in Afghanistan. American forces are combing parts of eastern Afghanistan for Hekmatyar, his loyalists and Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives.") (February 24, 2003)
***ISLAM ONLINE.net: "HEKMATYAR URGES CONTINUED JIHAD AGAINST U.S." (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "He underlined that anyone who did not believe in Jihad as an obligatory duty against the Americans was ignorant about the basics of Islam.") (February 20, 2003)
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