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| Axis of Evil |
| Repulsing Attack By Islamic Militants, Iraqi Kurds Tell Of Atrocities |
| 2002-12-06 |
| An Islamic militant group with reported links to Al Qaeda has withdrawn today from areas it briefly seized from the Kurdish autonomous government, Kurdish military and government officials said. The repulsed group, Ansar al-Islam, or Supporters of Islam, operates in a tiny portion of the Kurdish enclave near Iraq's northeastern border with Iran.On the other side of the Kurdish fortifications near here, its militants have created a miniature version of the Taliban's Afghanistan, with an estimated 650 extremist fighters maintaining a rigid Islamic society among about 8,000 civilians, according to unverifiable Kurdish accounts. Kurdish officials say that from this base militants plan raids and terrorist attacks with the support of Al Qaeda. The group, which formed late in 2001 in opposition to the autonomous and largely secular government in the Kurdish enclave, is mostly composed of Kurds. But Kurdish leaders here say that about 150 of its members, mostly Arabs, trained in Qaeda-sponsored camps in Afghanistan, and that Osama bin Laden's network has an interest in its success. "This is a group that Al Qaeda set up here as an alternative base of operations in the Middle East," said a senior Kurdish official familiar with the intelligence collected on Ansar. "It is certain from various sources that this was to be an alternative base to Afghanistan." The official declined to be identified. Although this oft-repeated assertion has not been publicly confirmed by Western officials, Ansar al-Islam's bold assault on Kurdish defenses, begun before sunrise Wednesday by nearly a third of its fighters, offered a detailed look at the tactics and apparent savagery of a rearguard enemy whom American soldiers might face if they enter northern Iraq. The battle was fought for two small hilltops that in the course of 12 hours changed hands twice. It was no high-technology affair. The surviving soldiers described an old-fashioned fight, with light weapons and at intimate range, within the distance that men can throw hand-grenades and shout curses back and forth. It left more than 50 Kurdish infantrymen dead. The autonomous Kurdish government in the northern part of Iraq said as many as half of the dead among its soldiers were executed when they ran out of ammunition and surrendered, or after being wounded and overrun. Interviews with the soldiers themselves suggest that the official assessment of the brutality could well be accurate. There was also a religious and social significance in the attack that did not escape its victims' notice. The militants, shouting the name of God as they advanced, rushed the Kurdish barricades on the day before the Muslim holy festival of Id al-Fitr, which in the West would be like an ambush on Christmas Eve. But,I thought you couldn't fight during Ramadan? Kurdish lines at the Ansar front are anchored near Halabja, a village resting in a level basin beneath the snow-capped Zagros Mountains, which continue into Iran. Kurdish control ends at a valley just behind the village. Squarely in front of the valley's mouth are two small hills, Drozna and Tapa Qura, where Kurds had built forward defenses. Each hill offers unobstructed observation and fields of fire, and a chance to control the valley's entrance. Kurdish military policy toward Ansar al-Islam has essentially been one of containment. Early Wednesday, the Islamic militants tried to break out. They showed signs of tactical cunning, striking when Kurdish officers were certain enough of a holiday lull that they had sent about 1,000 of the region's 3,500 troops home on leave. They also showed a degree of field competence, spending the night quietly infiltrating the lowlands, creeping into positions beneath the hills about 4 a.m. An hour earlier, the garrisons, which had kept many soldiers up on watch, had decreased their guards. An officer on Tapa Qura, named Sarkawt Fayaq, said he fell asleep just before Ansar's first rush at 4:20. A grenade struck his building. He woke and looked outside. Bearded fighters were storming from several directions, under the protection of supporting machine gun and mortar fire. Someone has been doing some training. "We all ran to the barricades and started shooting at them, but I was hit with a bullet in my left hand and I fell down," he said. "I stood up and they hit me with another bullet in the shoulder. Then a grenade was thrown at me, and something hit my head." Within hours Ansar controlled the two hills. Kurdish reinforcements were able to push the Ansar fighters back and reclaim the hills before nightfall Wednesday, and by this morning Kurds had rushed in about 2,000 more soldiers, bringing their local troop strength to about 4,500. With their convoys filling the roads, a lull was apparent this morning. Ansar had pulled back. But as Kurdish soldiers searched the field they found 53 dead soldiers, with at least 30 wounded. Accounts of brutality circulated quickly. One bloodied soldier after another described fighting for the first hours, then running out of ammunition and crawling away from the battle to hide in farming ditches and wait for reinforcements. Those who could not fight or hide faced hideous fates. One soldier, Dyary Mohammad, 18, said he was hiding in a small creek near Drozna when a comrade named Saman surrendered to five militants. Saman begged for his life. "He was screaming, `in the name of Allah, don't kill me,' " he said. "They took a jerrycan of benzene from a Land Rover, and poured it on him and set him on fire. After leaving him to roll on the ground for a while they shot him with a bullet." Kurdish commanders estimated that Ansar lost 10 to 15 men, but cautioned that these numbers might not be reliable because Ansar was thought to have carried away many of its casualties. There was also some sense that Ansar, after a few hours of success, had suffered a setback of its own. Barham Salih, a leader of the Kurds' eastern zone, said that among the Ansar dead was Mullah Abdullah Khalifani, the deputy commander of the group's military wing. His account could not be independently confirmed. A few Special Forces guys directing B-52 strikes will give them a setback they won't forget. |
| Posted by:Steve |