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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Ansar al-Islam v. 2.0 |
| 2004-02-15 |
| A terrorist group with ties to Al Qaeda that escaped a U.S.-led attack last March has regrouped and is involved in the wave of car bombings and other recent suicide attacks that have killed and wounded hundreds in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Some members of Ansar al-Islam fled into Iran from their enclave in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq last March as U.S. and Kurdish troops closed in. Now they’re returning to become a terrorist threat in postwar Iraq. U.S. and Kurdish officials say they believe Ansar has regrouped in small Iranian towns near the border. Members have been returning to Iraq to train Iraqis in building bombs and advocating their extremist view of Islam that sanctions suicide bombings. The Kurdish officials said their assessment is based on intercepted phone calls, interrogations of captured Ansar members and documents confiscated from detainees. A high-ranking U.S. Army official in Baghdad confirmed that the U.S. military suspects Ansar has been involved in bombings across Iraq, including one last August that killed more than 80 in the southern city of Najaf, and most of the recent suicide bombings in and around Baghdad. "We’ve seen elements of what we think are Ansar Islam throughout Iraq," the Army official said. He requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of intelligence in Iraq, and possible conflicts with official statements from U.S.-led coalition officials in Baghdad. Intelligence officials in Washington are skeptical that Ansar is playing a leading role in the attacks on coalition forces and Iraqis who cooperate with the U.S.-led occupation. The officials said that though the Bush administration is quick to highlight alleged links between Al Qaeda and Iraq and to blame the violence on foreigners, the attacks are largely the work of Sunni Muslim Iraqis. The Army official in Baghdad said, however, that military intelligence has detected some cooperation between the two. The official cautioned that "it’s very, very hard to penetrate" the groups, however, and U.S. officials previously blamed the August Najaf bombing on a dissident Shi’ite cleric, Moqtada al Sadr. Kurdish officials suggest Iran might be playing a role in the flow of Ansar fighters across its border. Kosrat Rasul, who commanded the Kurdish troops in the fighting against Ansar last spring, said Iran not only kept its borders open, but also sat back while Ansar sympathizers helped the fighters escape. "We saw with our own eyes" that the Iranians "brought their vehicles and transported them into Iran," said Rasul, who wouldn’t say whether he thought those who helped Ansar members were acting alone or in concert with Iranian officials. A spokesman at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, who refused to give his name, denied that any Ansar fighters entered Iran. Dan Senor, a top U.S. spokesman in Baghdad, said American officials in Iraq are very worried about Iran. "We have serious concerns about Iranian intentions in Iraq," he said. "We have had concerns for some time about the influx of terrorists over the borders. We would hope that the Iranian government was more cooperative in protecting against the influx of unhelpful elements." The Ansar fighters who last year scampered over the mountains with AK47 rifles on their shoulders have returned shaven and wearing Western-style clothes, said Hikmat Mohammad Karim, a top Kurdish politician. After crossing into Iraq, said Karim, Ansar members spread out to recruit members in local mosques. The Ansar fighters also have formed alliances of convenience with local Saddam Hussein loyalists, providing them with training and expertise in making improvised bombs and conducting guerrilla warfare, Karim said. In return, the Hussein loyalists provide safe houses, weapons and money. While it’s not clear how widespread Ansar’s influence is, the group clearly is active. Ansar has been accused of playing a part in several bombings -- including explosions at a United Nations building and the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad last August -- but the group had not until recently taken responsibility for the blasts. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 "Hello, Khatami, this is Paul Bremer." "You Zionist dog! How dare you call me on my telephone!" "Lissen, I don't have much time to converse with you. But a small tip -- " "I don't listen to anything you American dogs say!" "-- yeah, yeah, sure-- those Ansar boys on your border? You ought to control them, or we will. Violently. Soon." "What was it you just said?" "Bye." [click] |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-2-15 12:26:39 AM |