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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Kurdish Officials Blame Mosul Attacks on Islamist Kurds |
| 2005-02-24 |
| Radical Islamist groups that originated in Iraqi Kurdistan are responsible for most of the attacks now taking place in the northern insurgent stronghold of Mosul, senior Kurdish officials say. The activities of the related jihadist groups, Ansar al-Sunna and Ansar al-Islam, have overshadowed those of the nationalist insurgent cells in Mosul led by members of the former ruling Baath Party, the officials say. The nationalist fighters have quieted down since December, when the Americans increased the number of troops in Mosul to clamp down on the insurgency in advance of the Jan. 30 elections, the Kurdish officials say. Though the two Ansar groups have little connection to the Baathists, the officials add, they are forging strong ties to the network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who has claimed responsibility for bombings, beheadings and ambushes that have killed hundreds across Iraq. "Smaller cells have spread throughout Iraq and have concentrated in Mosul," said Bafel Jalal Talabani, the head of a counter-insurgency wing of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Kurdish party that rules eastern Iraq Kurdistan. "It needs to be controlled because it has the capacity to spiral and grow." Mr. Talabani is one of two sons of Jalal Talabani, the head of the party and the leading candidate for president of the new Iraq. The counter-insurgency group is a branch of the party's militia, called the pesh merga, and was founded about four years ago to combat Ansar al-Islam. At that time, Ansar al-Islam, made up of mostly of hard-line Islamist Kurds, had established a stronghold along the rugged Iranian border several hours north of Sulaimaniya, the capital of eastern Kurdistan. In March 2003, after the American-led invasion of Iraq got underway, pesh merga fighters and American Special Forces soldiers stormed the mountain villages held by Ansar al-Islam and broke up the group. Some members later reorganized to form Ansar al-Sunna, which recruited fighters from conservative Sunni Arab cities like Falluja and Ramadi. Mr. Talabani declined to specify what operations Ansar al-Islam might have conducted in Mosul, but said the group was responsible for an entire range of attacks seen in the city, from detonating roadside bombs to seizing police stations. The group paled next to Ansar al-Sunna, though, which has grown No mention of Iran but they were behind Ansar. Otherwise the Kurds seems to be working on the problem. |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #1 Cut those female Tankers loose with Carte Blanche. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-02-24 7:56:14 AM |