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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Kurds say Iran supporting Zarqawi, Ansar al-Islam |
| 2004-11-08 |
| A dirt track winds from this Kurdish border outpost to the top of a jagged mountain ridge separating Iran from Iraq's northern Kurdish enclave. For years, and with the blessing of Iranian officials, Islamist terrorist groups have smuggled weapons and money into Iraq on this road, many Kurdish intelligence and security officials said. When US special forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters attacked Ansar al-Islam, an Al Qaeda affiliate, in March 2003, hundreds of its members fled to Iran, the officials said, and have regrouped in several towns just over this border. There, they continue to train, raise funds, and plan terrorist operations in Iraq, infiltrating operatives across a porous, rocky, high-altitude border that has long been a haven for smugglers and that, in practical terms, is impossible to police, the Kurdish officials say. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #4 Come on, where's the Surprise Meter when it's needed? |
| Posted by: Capt America 2004-11-08 9:43:10 PM |
| #3 I think equivalently trained and armed Kurds could have a greater effect on the Iranians. And the effect on the Turks wouldn't be bad, either. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-11-08 3:13:19 PM |
| #2 If the bad guys are just across the border, what is to stop a few of our charming Special Forces guys from paying them a little visit? (in their copious free time, I mean) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-11-08 2:55:13 PM |
| #1 Groups active in Iraq and Iran include: TAWHID AND JIHAD: Headed by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has proclaimed his allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Claimed responsibility for several beheadings and car bombings in Iraq. Believed to be based in the central Iraqi city of Fallujah. - ANSAR AL-ISLAM: Formed in the Kurdish parts of Iraq. Later believed to have incorporated Arab al-Qaeda members fleeing US strikes on Afghanistan. Group had bases along Iranian-Iraqi border that were bombed and attacked by Iraqi Kurdish and US Special Forces at the start of the 2003 Iraq war. Al-Zarqawi is believed to have played a key role in the group after he fled Afghanistan. - IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD: Shock troops of Iran's Islamic Revolution. A well-funded force of 200,000 that is independent of the armed forces and answers directly to the Islamic leadership and not elected officials. - MAHDI ARMY: Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, only insurgent group based in Shiite Muslim community, Iraq's largest social bloc. |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-11-08 3:19:41 AM |