More than 1,300 soldiers with close ties to an Islamic terrorist organization have been granted safe passage from Kurds controlling northeastern Iraq in return for giving up land to make way for an attack route for U.S. special forces and Peshmerga troops. In an agreement signed Tuesday with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), soldiers and their families loyal to the Komala political party will start evacuating the Halabja valley today in order to clear the way for an attack against hundreds of Ansar al-Islam fundamentalists.
| I'm not sure letting the Komala "soldiers" sneak off into the night is the way to go. Komala appears to be the Jamaat Islami, described as a "mainstream" Islamic group, who just happen to be best friends with their Ansar soulmates. It'd be a better idea to let them remain and play the Ansar game out to the end. Letting them beat it is going to cause trouble down the road. You read it here first. |
The Komala party holds territory in the northern section of the valley, and the creation of a temporary vacuum will allow ground forces to bypass heavily mined areas that were designed by Ansar to prevent a frontal attack on its territory. Muhammad Haji Mahmood, chairman of the Kurdistan Democratic Socialist Party, who helped negotiate the evacuation, said the agreement allows Komala soldiers to keep their arms when they depart over a three-day period for northern territory along the Iranian border.
| That's an even worse idea, Muhammad Haji... |
Mahmood said that the PUK, which had paid Komala nearly $200,000 a month in order to help keep stability in the region, agreed to pay the party upward of $600,000 in back payments in order to seal the agreement. In addition, the PUK will ensure that any injured soldiers will receive immediate medical treatment and that all the soldiers and their families will be able to return to their lands about five months after the U.S.-led war against Iraq is over.
Rent-A-Army? What is this, Afghanistan-West?
| We can only hope that when they come back conditions are changed enough that they can be disarmed. Put a wire around their territory and call it a zoo or something, filled with rustics. Charge tourists ten bucks a head to gawk at them, twenty to watch them inbreed... |
Komala is considered a close ally of the Ansar group, and its soldiers have been seen mixing daily with the Islamists in the Khurmal region.
I guess they aren't that close.
On Saturday, 43 Komala soldiers were killed and 30 were injured after several U.S. cruise missiles were fired from ships in the Red Sea, landing on barracks and bunkers, said a Komala party official. Anwar Muhammad, a senior leader of the Komala group, said, "We've agreed to move out of the region so we don't give another excuse for the Americans to attack us again — we are not surrendering. Someone gave the wrong information to the Americans. We think the bombing was a mistake."
Either that or the landlord was trying to break your lease.
| Nah. No mistake. Keep track of where they move to, and bomb them there, too... |
He denied that Komala was linked to the Ansar group even though many Ansar families live in the Khurmal region where Komala is based. "We have adopted a different ideology from Ansar — who were previously our friends," said Muhammad. "We are not like them." The Komala party advocates a traditional Islamic society. The men are all bearded, and the women wear veils. They don't approve of secular ways and don't like foreigners living in Iraq. But they also don't enforce Islamic laws as severely as Ansar.
Tailban-Lite?
| "Maybe bump off a few infidels now and then, but nothing serious..." |
The Kurds have been battling with Ansar forces — ranging from 500 to 700 fighters — for nearly two years. Ansar allegedly has ties to Osama bin Laden's al Quad network and the Iranian government, said U.S. officials.
| Abu Zubaydah used to be their controller, back in the good old days in Afghanistan... Sorry. He's alleged to have been their controller... Say! Don't we have him in custody or something? Maybe somebody should ask him. Y'don't suppose they have already, do you? |
Ansar has engaged in suicide attacks in Kurdish areas, initiated assassination attempts against Kurdish officials and waged a military campaign against Kurdish forces.
The Kurds have a big score to settle.
Mahmood said that Peshmerga soldiers loyal to him, as well as PUK soldiers, will oversee the evacuation at checkpoints and will try to ensure that no Ansar terrorists try to mix with departing Komala families.
| "That's a lovely beard y'got there, ma'am. Can I see your papers, please?" |
"There could be up to 3,300 people leaving the area," Mahmood said. "They will be allowed to keep their guns, take any of their belongings, their sheep as well. It will be orderly." He said that he is no longer worried that Komala will turn on his militia and PUK forces. "At this stage, they can't fight. It's not easy to take the guns from them — but they're fragile now," he said. On Tuesday morning, coalition jets attacked Ansar positions in preparation for a ground assault that is expected to begin soon after the Komala evacuation is complete. "The attack on Ansar will be much easier because it will come from the side that was held by Komala," Mahmood said.
| Aside from letting the armed and dangerous Komala rustics depart for greener pastures, there to beat their wives in peace and bully their neighbors who might not be as holy as they are, this is ducky news. What a pity Mullah Krekar is in jug in Norway and can't be on hand for the blow-off. Perhaps they could Fedex him in? More likely, he'll spend six months in jug, get off on a technicality, and go back to dealing drugs in Jordan and Lebanon until he's got enough dough to start again somewhere else. On the other hand, maybe Zarqawi is still on hand in Ansarland, and can meet his Maker and a Tomahawk at about the same instant. But that's probably too much to hope for. It'll be nice to be able to move Ansar onto the "retired" list — except for the ones who scoot over the border to Iran, if they haven't yet. |
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