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Media reports emanating
from Norway in recent weeks indicate that the
Norwegian government intends to deport purported
Ansar Al-Islam leader Najm al-Din Faraj Ahmad, aka
Mullah Krekar, to Iraq. Krekar sought asylum in
Norway in 1991, but reportedly continues to serves
as the titular head of Ansar Al-Islam, making
frequent trips to Iraq since 1991. The group is
deemed a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S.
State Department. Iraqi authorities may attempt to
charge Krekar with human rights abuses against Iraqi
Kurds in northern Iraq.
There appears to be sufficient evidence linking
Ansar to numerous crimes against the Iraqi people.
It is unclear whether Iraqi authorities have
sufficient evidence, however, to link Krekar to the
purported atrocities committed by the group. Iraqi
Justice Minister Malik Duhan al-Hasan told "Al-Sharq
al-Awsat" on 11 March that the Iraqi authorities do
not have any criminal case or other charges against
Krekar even though it is well-known that he founded
and led the group. Krekar's brother has claimed that
Krekar left the group in 2002. "The Iraqi judiciary
is independent and it will not punish someone
because he is sympathetic to armed organizations or
opposes the occupation," al-Hasan said. "The Iraqi
government has nothing against Krekar but it cannot
guarantee his safety from his enemies."
Al-Hasan later told the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK) daily "Al-Ittihad" on 14 March: "We will
cooperate with the Al-Sulaymaniyah court regarding
any case filed against Mullah Krekar, and he will
face all the charges and the cases filed against him
during his trial, whether it is held in Al-Sulaymaniyah
or Baghdad," implying that the Kurdish authorities
may prosecute the Ansar leader. Should Krekar be
tried in Al-Sulaymaniyah, it is unlikely that he
would get a fair trial.
The ramifications of a trial on the Ansar movement
are also unknown. A trial would surely spark
increased terrorist attacks against Kurdish
civilians in the PUK-controlled areas. Those attacks
might be limited in scope, however, depending upon
whether they were launched by insurgents from Iran
or from within the scattered Ansar battalions in
Iraq. From all accounts, Ansar fighters have for
years easily penetrated the long Iranian border,
which is reportedly difficult to secure.
Ansar Al-Islam is a relatively new organization in
Iraq, but has roots in the Islamist movement in
Kurdistan. It is an outgrowth of a group called Jund
Al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam) that was formed in 2001
by splintered factions from the Islamic Movement of
Kurdistan. Jund Al-Islam, later renamed Ansar
Al-Islam (Supporters of Islam) initially based its
activities in the villages of Biyara and Tawela,
along the Iranian border northeast of Halabjah.
A long-standing enemy of the PUK, Ansar Al-Islam
fought the PUK, and later embraced a short-lived
cease-fire with the group. Ansar later carried out a
series of attacks against the PUK in 2002, including
the killing of 42 peshmerga fighters in a surprise
attack on a PUK village, and attempted to
assassinate PUK leader Barham Salih in an attack
that left five of Salih's bodyguards dead.
The United States bombed some 18 villages controlled
by Ansar in the opening days of Operation Iraqi
Freedom (see "RFE/RL Iraq Report," 25 March 2003).
That strike reportedly scattered Ansar militants,
and many were believed to have fled over the border
to Iran. Iran, however, denied reports of any
relationship to the terrorist group (see "RFE/RL
Iraq Report," 28 March and 2 April 2003). The group
appears, however, to have an on-again-off-again
relationship with the Iranian regime. PUK officials
most recently charged Iran with aiding Ansar members
and Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's group in November 2004
(see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 15 November 2004).
The Al-Qaeda Link
PUK and U.S. intelligence sources have linked Krekar
to the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization (see "RFE/RL
Iraq Report," 10 August 2004). Krekar has reportedly
been linked to Afghanistan since the 1980s and is
known to have studied Islamic law in Pakistan under
Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian who was said to be the
mentor of Osama bin Laden, according to the Canadian
Institute of Strategic Studies.
When Krekar assumed the leadership of Ansar Al-Islam
in 2001, he replaced Abu Abdullah Shafae, who was
trained by Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Washington
Institute for Near East Policy said in a 2003 report
that Ansar received start-up money from Al-Qaeda
leaders in an August 2001 meeting in Afghanistan
"with the goal of creating an alternate base for the
organization in northern Iraq." Ansar was formally
established in Iraq one month later.
Ansar fighters subsequently arrested by the PUK gave
what Human Rights Watch described as "credible"
details about Al-Qaeda training camps in
Afghanistan. Documents obtained by "The New York
Times" in Al-Qaeda guesthouse in Afghanistan also
pointed to an Al-Qaeda link.
The PUK claims that dozens of Al-Qaeda fighters
joined Ansar Al-Islam in Iraq after the 11 September
2001 terrorist attacks, with as many as 57 "Arab
Afghan" fighters entering Kurdistan via Iran that
month. Dozens of other Al-Qaeda fighters came later.
The PUK has dozens of Ansar fighters in custody in
Al-Sulaymaniyah, many of whom admitted the group's
link to Al-Qaeda. Reports indicate, however, that
the confessions may have been extracted through the
PUK's torture of detainees.
Kurdish villagers that spoke to Human Rights Watch
in September 2002 reported the presence of Arabs
speaking various dialects and of other fighters from
Ansar that spoke unrecognizable languages. Civilians
interviewed by the human rights organization
recounted attempts by Ansar to establish a
Taliban-style rule over the Kurdish villages under
their control. Reports suggested that Ansar was
responsible for "arbitrary arrests of numerous
Kurdish civilians, prolonged and illegal detention,
the torture and ill-treatment of detainees, and the
killing of combatants after surrender." Villagers
also told the media that Ansar imposed a strict
religious code, banning televisions and music, and
prohibiting women from leaving their homes.
Relations with Al-Zarqawi
As early as 2002, the Jordanian government claimed
that fugitive terrorist Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi had
sought refuge with Ansar. Al-Zarqawi had apparently
joined up with some Ansar elements, while some
reports indicated that other elements of the group
branched off to establish the Ansar Al-Sunnah Army.
U.S. officials released a letter in February 2004
purportedly written by al-Zarqawi requesting support
from Al-Qaeda to fund terrorist operations in Iraq.
Al-Zarqawi openly pledged his allegiance to Osama
bin Laden and declared his group in Iraq Jama'at Al-Tawhid
wa Al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (Monotheism and
Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers). The
relationship today between Ansar Al-Islam and Ansar
Al-Sunnah is unclear. Ansar Al-Sunnah continues to
claim responsibility for attacks in Iraq, and it
appears that Ansar Al-Islam remnants operate under
al-Zarqawi's movement.
Krekar has made several trips to Iraq from his home
in Norway since 1991, and has also traveled
extensively in Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and
Italy. Italian investigators claim to have found a
link between Ansar and Al-Qaeda and claim that Ansar
provided a ready-made infrastructure for Al-Qaeda in
Iraq. "We found that principally Ansar served
[Al-Qaeda] in terms of logistical support and help
for their activity, especially for training their
people in the area where they had already organized
some camps," Italian prosecutor Stefano Dambruoso
told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in
2004. An Ansar cell was reportedly uncovered in
Germany in December 2004, and intelligence indicated
that the cell was funneling money and fighters to
Iraq.
The Norwegians have suspected that Krekar also made
use of the Internet to command Ansar militants from
Norway. Dutch authorities arrested Krekar in
Amsterdam in 2002 (en route from Iran to Norway) and
Jordan filed extradition papers on charges related
to drug trafficking. He was later released for
insufficient evidence and sent back to Norway.
Norwegian police have also detained Krekar on a
number of occasions since he sought asylum there in
1991, but never accumulated enough evidence to
prosecute Krekar. U.S. officials also sought
Krekar's extradition, but Norwegian officials
refused to oblige that request. Norway did revoke
Krekar's refugee status in 2002, but pending court
cases kept him in the country. With the cases
resolved, the Norwegian government announced in
March that it would deport Krekar to Iraq, after
receiving assurances from the Iraqi government that
Krekar would not face the death penalty there.
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