AN Islamist group, Ansar al-Sunna, with alleged links to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility today for the deadly twin suicide attacks in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil, according to an Islamist Internet site.
| There was a group called Ansar al-Sunna that announced its formation in a statement faxed to al-Quds al-Araby back in November. Presumably this is the same bunch... |
In a statement posted on the site, the group said "two of our martyr brothers attacked the two dens of Satan in Arbil" on Sunday. "Our joy on Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) was boosted by this attack against the agents of Jews and Christians," the statement said. The statement expressed sympathies with the "brothers" of the militant group Ansar al-Islam, which Kurdish political groups have fingered in the attack and which is suspected of links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.
Sounds like a successor organization to Ansar al-Islam, probably made up more of Zarqawi’s al-Tawhid than Krekar’s Kurdish followers.
| It's my guess they're the same bunch as Ansar al-Islam, with a false nose and moustache, or a subgroup within it. It's kinda like the troll who was posting here yesterday, three articles, each under a different name. Some people thought it was more than one guy. |
"The Sunnis in Iraq and everywhere in the world have understood that the Crusaders cannot enter the provinces of Kirkuk and Niniveh without the help of the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) and the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party), run by their agents Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani, respectively," it said. The statement was dated February 4 and bore the signature of "Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Massud, head of the Ansar Al-Sunna army".
| He's probably a squad leader... |
"The two agents (Talabani and Barzani) have prepared the way for the American army to occupy the two provinces, despite the fall of the atheist Baath regime ... before handing the two provinces to the Crusaders. That is why we watched for the occasion to avenge the two tyrants, whose hands are stained with the blood of Muslims ... and who coordinated with the Crusaders to strike our Mujahedeen brother group Ansar al-Islam, their women and their children."
"Youse guys better stay away from us them!" |
"So we have hit their main offices," added the statement, entitled The Two Conquests of Arbil, using the same terminology as that of bin Laden in reference to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington. A television station owned by the PUK said today a Yemeni had been arrested in connection with the Arbil bombings, the deadliest attacks in Iraq since the ouster of Saddam Hussein’s regime last April. The suspect was seized in a hotel in the northern oil centre of Kirkuk and explosives were found in his possession, the station said.
| I do hope they're thumping him soundly at this very moment... |
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