Ansar al-Islam seems to have dropped off the radar screen, while an even more active and deadly terrorist organization with similar nomenclature, Ansar al-Sunna, has emerged in its place. With its membership scattered and installations decimated, has Ansar al-Islam disappeared as a coherent force?Although not as strong as it once was, the arrest of Ansar al-Islam members in Kurdistan indicates that there are sleeper cells remaining in the area. Ansar al-Islam members still operate inside Iraq but are now largely based in predominately Sunni Arab areas in central Iraq where they are able to operate more freely. Furthermore, Ansar al-Islam is active in Europe, recruiting, transporting and even training jihadists to fight in Iraq.
It has been widely reported that Ansar al-Sunna, a prolific and capable terrorist organization, is an offshoot of Ansar al-Islam. Yet the linkage between Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunna is not as straightforward. Many security officials believe--and arrest patterns indicate--that Kurdish militants affiliated with Ansar al-Islam have dispersed in two directions within Iraq. Some Ansar members are now connected with Zarqawi’s Qaedat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (al-Qaeda in Iraq), and work out of central Iraq. Another wing operates under the rubric of Ansar al-Sunna. Ansar al-Islam, for its part, continues to work as a separate entity within Europe.
| When it was created, Ansar al-Islam was a conglomerate of Afghan Arabs, the local Kurdish jihad wannabes, Zark's al-Tawhid, and one or two others. It was an al-Qaeda creation from the first; it's controller was Abu Zubaydah. I still haven't quite figured where Mullah Krekar figured, except as a figurehead. He was, if I recall, the head of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, which provided the bulk of the cannon fodder, but Shafaei was the original commander. |