Kurds try to stop Al-Qaida militia
Iran has promised help to Kurdish officials.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
THE SHINIRWE FRONT, Northern Iraq -- The morning sun rises over inhospitable rocks as wind-chilled Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq stare from a mountain rampart at their quarry below: Al-Qaida-backed Islamic militants.
The U.S. military refrained from carrying out plans to strike the Ansar al-Islam ("Soldiers of God") stronghold last August -- when intelligence reports indicated they were testing lethal chemicals. But their presence may yet affect America's Iraqi strategy.
Kurdish forces facing off against some 650 members of Ansar say fighting on this front is tying up troops that could be preparing to assist with any American effort to topple the Iraqi regime.
"These Islamists are like a time bomb: The minute we attack Baghdad and leave these positions, they will attack us from behind," says Sheikh Jafar Mustapha, a senior commander of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two Kurdish militias in northern Iraq.
Just a few miles wide, the sliver of Ansar-controlled turf is protected by other armed Kurdish Islamist allies on two sides, and abuts the Iranian border behind. In front, facing the PUK troops, is an impenetrable strip of landmines and explosives. "We would be happy if the Americans came here to destroy [Ansar]. They can take down the whole mountain," Sheikh Jafar says. "We can't do anything against them, though we have 25 times their number."
Numbers have grown
Kurdish sources, a ranking Ansar defector and analysts say that Ansar numbers have grown in recent months and include 80 or so Arabs, and others trained by Al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
But they say that Ansar morale has dropped, since Iran helped orchestrate the arrest of their leader, Mullah Krekar, in the Netherlands in September.
Despite past concerns that conservative elements in Iran supported this Islamist group, or at least turned a blind eye to their activities, Kurdish officials say that Iran is now promising to help them. Iran has warned Ansar to move three miles from the border -- a move that would force it into the PUK front line, as well as keep any U.S. attack away from Iran's border.
"They still pose a significant risk [within the region], and have definitely shared Al-Qaida's training structure," says Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror," contacted in Malaysia. He says that two of the scores of Al-Qaida training videotapes that were found in Afghanistan, and were aired by CNN in August, showed Ansar's Kurdish parent organization at work.
Local action
"They are more of a militia organization -- not a typical terrorist cell," says Gunaratna, noting the Kurds' "substantial early connection" with Al-Qaida.
"They are not so committed to [attacking] the West, but to local guerrilla action."
Indeed, Ansar hit squads attacked a PUK checkpoint near the town of Halabja -- six miles from this front line -- two weeks ago, killing three Kurds.
Before that, a video shop was blown up -- after one failed attempt -- in the town of Said Sadik.