| Submit your comments on this article |
| Terror Networks |
| Ansar al-Islam linked to al-Qaeda... |
| 2002-10-22 |
| Ansar al-Islam was created by Osama bin Laden from terrorist cells shifted from Afghanistan just before the Sept. 11 attacks, a top Iraqi Kurdish leader claimed Tuesday. Local intelligence sources also support U.S. allegations that the group has conducted chemical weapons tests, said Barham Salih, prime minister of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK. We pretty much guessed that. Nice to have your guesses corroborated... The PUK, the second largest of the pro-Western Iraqi Kurdish political groups, controls eastern parts of the semiautonomous region where Ansar al-Islam operates. "We have very solid information corroborating (an al-Qaida link) from our own sources," said Salih, who was the target of an assassination attempt in April by suspected Ansar al-Islam gunmen. He declined to give further details on the evidence gathered. But he said clues suggest bin Laden had a direct role in creating an al-Qaida foothold in northern Iraq. There are probably other groups as well, in other countries who seem likely candidates for a little Islamic revolutionizing... According to Iraqi Kurdish evidence, the core of Ansar al-Islam, or Supporters of Islam, was created 10 days before the Sept. 11 attacks as part of bin Laden's plans to disperse his terrorist network before an expected U.S. strike on al-Qaida's command in Afghanistan, Salih said. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |