The Kurdistan Brigade of al-Qaeda in Iraq - a new military formation which belongs to the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam, has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's suicide bomb attack in Erbil. At least 19, people were killed when a vehicle with explosives rammed into the offices of the interior and security ministry of the autonomous region of Kurdistan. The official site of the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam said "the suicide bomber who completed the attack is a member of the Kurdistan Brigade which forms part of the Islamic State of Iraq [cartel] set up by al-Qaeda in Iraq".
Groups of Ansar al Islam - a Sunni Islamist Kurdish group - have been spotted on various occasions recently near the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran, a fact which makes the authorities suspect Tehran of providing logistical support and refuge to the group. A source within the Kurdish peshmerga militia - which allied itself with the US-led coalition in the 2003 war and serves as the main security force for the Kurdistan regional government - told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Monday that "intelligence acquired by the local authorities shows that Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunna - linked to al-Qaeda - are reorganising their ranks and deploying their forces near the border".
At the same time, a Kurdish armed group has distributed a statement in the area close to the Iranian border, threatening the 'apostates' of Islam and calling on local people to reveal the names of young people who recently converted to Christianity. The statement, which Adnkronos International (AKI) has seen, adds that "the apostates of the Islamic religion will be the targets of a programme by the jihadi groups and the residents must collaborate with Ansar al-Islam to reveal their identities".
Kurdish MP Mahmoud 'Uthman held a press conference condemning the attack and announcing his suspicions of the Ansar al-Islam organization. He also blamed Ansar al-Sunna, a militant Sunni Arab group opposed to the US occupation and the current government of Iraq. “The attack that targeted the city of Erbil was expected, despite the intense security operations in recent days. We had intelligence information that terrorist groups had plans to disrupt security and to bring the instability of Baghdad and central Iraq to Kurdistan,” a source told AKI. “Large quantities of weapons and explosives” were discovered in Kurdistan in recent days, the security source said. Kurdish intelligence officials initially believed that these were destined to be smuggled into the rest of Iraq, but later investigations revealed that they were intended for operations inside Kurdish territory.