(AKI) - The Ansar al-Sunna, the main Islamist group in Iraqi Kurdistan, has threatened to either kill or kidnap the female students of Kirkuk, the oil capital of northern Iraq, should they wear trousers, put on make-up or fail to cover their heads with a scarf. A number of posters issuing such a threat have been distributed and affixed on the walls of Kirkuk, a local source said. In the poster, the Islamist group explicitly requested female students to "wear the headscarf and the traditional black Islamic gown.""The posters have terrified female students and their families," added the source, who also said that "this could increase the rate of female students dropping out of school."
Ansar al-Sunna, a group linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq, is the most active Islamist group in Kirkuk's province. In the past, Ansar al-Sunna had even created a sort of Islamic 'state' in its strongholds in the northern provinces of Biyara and Tawila, applying sharia - the Islamic law. The group maintains close ties with the remnants of Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish Islamist organization formerly based in the mountains near Halabja in northeastern Iraq before the US-led invasion.