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| Iraq |
| Kurds to fight guerilla group linked to al-Qaeda |
| 2003-03-20 |
| Kurdish commanders in a semi-autonomous enclave in northern Iraq say their battle against the militant Islamic group Ansar al Islam will become a secondary front line to the United States-led attack on the regime of Saddam Hussein. The Kurds are expected to fight alongside US special forces already in the area. The SF will ID targets for airstrikes. Kurds will mop up anyone left alive. Iraqi opposition groups, meeting a US envoy in Turkey, agreed this week to put thousands of Kurdish forces under US command during a war. The US is pushing them to fight against Ansar, in part to prevent Kurdish groups from seeking to take over Kirkuk, an oil-rich city and an ethnic tinderbox of tensions. "They want to keep us busy on the Ansar front. We are aware of that," said Shalaw Askari, a central committee member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two leading Kurdish groups with its own fighting force. Kurdish officials say there is evidence that about 100 bin Laden-inspired Arab fighters from many countries are hiding in the mountains along the Iranian border and that Ansar had previously sent its fighters to train at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. If I was Ansar, I'd be hightailing it for the border. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 Meanwhile, Al-Ansar head cheese has been chatting up pretty blondes, wearing sharp ski sweaters, and pounding cold beer up in Oslo. He also expects his boys to wear 'splody belts to meet the Yanks... You couldn't make this stuff up and it's actually happening. Go Kurds! |
| Posted by: JDB 2003-03-20 19:23:35 |