Routed Islamists had UK links, say Kurds
By Wendell Steavenson in Tawela
(Filed: 01/04/2003)
Jubilant Kurdish forces say they have found hundreds of documents with contact addresses and telephone numbers in London and the Arab world in the camp of the routed Muslim terrorist group Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq.
The claim, made after American special forces and Kurdish guerrillas routed Ansar in a ferocious three-day battle, could be vital for determining the strength of the long-claimed connection between Ansar and the al-Qa'eda network.
For almost two years the band of about 700 Islamist fighters occupied 40 villages in the mountains of Kurdistan that back up against the Iranian border. They attacked Kurdish peshmerga militia checkpoints and positions, mortared the town of Halabja and sent suicide bombers and assassination squads after Kurdish leaders.
Now they are gone. After a two-day battle, 5,000 Kurdish peshmerga fighters, in close co-operation with dozens of American special forces calling in air strikes, have killed hundreds and pushed the remainder across the border into Iran.
As Kurds celebrated their victory, Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the base was probably a site where terrorists made ricin, traces of which were found in London last year. No evidence has yet been shown to back up his allegation. He described it as a site "where Ansar al-Islam and al-Qa'eda had been working on poisons".
"We think that's probably where the ricin that was found in London came from," he told CNN's Late Edition. "At least the operatives and maybe some of the formulas came from this site."
For the Kurds the defeat of Ansar is a triumph. Surrounded by most of his political and military leadership, the portly, father-figure leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Jalal Talabani, stood in the middle of Tawela, the furthest village of territory which clings to improbably steep slopes, barely a mile from the white-capped mountain that marks the Iranian border.
Hundreds of smiling peshmerga stood about clapping and waving peace signs.
"We are proud to liberate this area," he said. "We are proud of our peshmerga who fought very bravely against a wild enemy and we are proud of our American friends. We are proud our people are free and can breathe again."
The peshmerga attack began on Friday and followed a week of cruise missile and jet bombardment of Ansar positions. Along the road vast shell craters of ashy earth were visible where there had been Ansar checkpoints; Ansar's crude mud and sandbag bunkers had been smashed.
The attack came over the mountains from four directions. Ansar had scattered into pockets and resistance was heavy. The PUK says it lost 22 "martyrs" in the fighting and more than 60 were injured.
Only two Ansar surrendered. "They fought until they were killed," said Mustapha Seid Qadr who commanded the peshmerga operation. "Some blew themselves up because they did not want to submit."
Total Ansar casualties are hard to determine; the PUK suggests that as many as 250 were killed. Another 150, including the leadership, were seen by villagers heading into Iran. The Iranians are said to have arrested them there, and the PUK has asked for them to be extradited back to Kurdistan as criminals.
The rout of Ansar was absolute; the PUK said they captured more than 25 Soviet heavy machine-guns, more than 20 120mm mortars, two Katyusha multiple rocket launchers, 23 machine-guns and many light arms. They found six arsenals filled with mostly Iranian weapons, 400 barrels of petrol and 60 tons of food.
"What we spent, we got back," said Mr Talabani, laughing and pleased. "They left so fast they even left behind computer disks."
The Kurds have always maintained that Ansar was full of itinerant Arab jihadis, supplied by both the Iranian regime and Saddam Hussein's as a way to destabilise their autonomous region.
Dr Barham Saleh, the PUK prime minister, held up a torn Moroccan passport, found during the fighting. It belonged to Said Hamsi who was born on March 23, 1973, and had an Iraqi visa dated November 2002.
In the village where Ansar had their headquarters, Mr Talabani stopped his convoy of more than 30 cars to greet Sheikh Malik Naqshbandi, a religious leader who had returned to his home after two years.
"This is the place of my grandfathers," said Sheikh Malik, "Ansar are terrorists, they destroyed the hospital and used schools as military headquarters. They took the bodies of our ancestors from the cemetery."
Sheikh Malik's house was used by Ansar and destroyed by an American missile. He said he didn't mind. "I don't think there will be a happier day in my life."
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