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Iraq | |||
Denied Entry Into Iran, Ansar Fighters Surrender | |||
2003-04-08 | |||
Denied entry into neighboring Iran, scores of Islamic militants who had retreated into the mountains during recent attacks by US forces are trudging through snow and across fields to surrender to Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq. The Ansar Al-Islam guerrillas are considered terrorists, would-be suicide bombers with ties to Al-Qaeda. But as 15 of them sat in the dimness of a cinder-block house here Sunday, some with frostbitten toes, they seemed more misguided and scared than dangerous.
Good place for them. More than 300 Ansar guerrillas have agreed to surrender in the coming days to the Kurdish government, according to Abdullah Haji Mahmood, a commander in the Kurdish Socialist Party who negotiated the deal. Among them are Ansar leaders, including Abdullah Shafee, Mohammad Hassan, and a man identified as Dr. Omer. Ansar was defeated in a two-day battle last month when US Special Forces and 6,000 Kurdish fighters attacked their strongholds along the Iranian border. About 250 of Ansar’s 700 fighters were killed; others fled over the mountains and sought refuge in Iran. Let's see, 250 dead, 300 surrender, carry the one, that's around 150 bad guys missing.
They understand English: Cruise missile, JDAM, Boeing, Marines, Special Forces, regime change, words like that. Other Kurdish officials, however, said the Iranians are still holding a number of Ansar’s leaders, including bombmaker Ayub Afghani and Hemin Benishari, who allegedly specialized in military tactics and assassinations. Holding is better than on the loose. And Kurdish authorities are investigating whether Iran gave Arabs who belonged to Ansar safe passage to a third country. Surprise meter didn't twitch Although made up largely of radical Kurds, Ansar had an estimated 120 hard-core Arab fighters from Yemen, Morocco, Israel, Tunisia and other countries. As they say, "The Usual Suspects". These would be the missing bad guys. A number of them trained in Al-Qaeda’s camps in Afghanistan, and Washington claims Ansar manufactured chemical agents and was a terrorist bridge between the Middle East and Europe. Many of the Ansar fighters who have surrendered, however, “are different from Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda,’’ said Mahmood, whose men guarded and fed the guerrillas until they were taken to prison. “Most of them are brainwashed youths,’’ he said.
The Kurds have got their act together. | |||
Posted by:Steve |
#2 The Turks had their chance to be part of the solution. When they blocked the 4ID entrance through Turkey, they became part of the problem. |
Posted by: Douglas De Bono 2003-04-08 13:25:29 |
#1 Why did we try to deal with Turkey again? Maybe Bush should start pushing for a sovereign Kurdistan as soon as the dust settles around Baghdad. The Kurds have caught a raw deal from all sides since the Ottomans ruled the steppe, and this is just the kind of stunt Bush would pull to teach the Turks a lesson. Rise Kurdistan rise! |
Posted by: defscribe 2003-04-08 12:04:19 |