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Ansar al-Islam terrorist group claims responsibility
for Mosul attack against U.S. troops
31.1.2008 |
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January
31, 2008
Ninewa,
Northwest Iraq, --
Ansar al-Islam, an
extremist terrorist group linked to al Qaeda, issued
a statement on Wednesday claiming responsibility for
the attack that killed five U.S. soldiers in the
northern volatile province of Ninewa.
“The group targeted a U.S. army patrol accompanied
by Kurdish forces (peshmerga) in Sumer district,
eastern Mosul ” said a statement published on a
website used by Ansar al-Islam terrorist group.
The announcement pointed out “the operation carried
out by planting a number of improvised explosive
devises (IED) on a road and then indulging in
clashes with the U.S. soldiers”.
Five U.S. soldiers were killed in a coordinated
ambush in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on
Monday, the U.S. military said, making it one of the
deadliest single attacks against American forces in
months. The patrol was hit by a roadside bomb and
then came under small arms fire from a nearby
mosque, the military said.
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Mullah Krekar, the founder of radical and Terrorist
Islamist group Ansar al-Islam. Krekar, whose real
name is Fateh Najmeddin Faraj |
The attack came a day after extra Iraqi troops
arrived for a final push against al Qaeda in what
has been described as their last major urban
stronghold.
The push in Mosul was announced by Iraqi primer
minister Nouri al-Maliki after a huge blast last
week in a building the U.S. military said had been
used by al Qaeda to store weapons and explosives
killed up to 50 people.
Ansar al-Islam is an extremist al-Qaeda-linked
group, was founded in 2001, and went under the
mantra of al-Qaeda in Iraq after ousting Saddam
Hussein’s regime by the U.S. troops in March 2003.
Mulla
Krekar, who was born Najm al-Din Faraj Ahmad, has lived in Norway as a refugee since 1991
and has been under threat of deportation since
Norwegian media revealed he was the founder of Ansar
al-Islam, which figures on the United States' list
of terrorist organisations.
The Iraqi Kurd admits that he founded the group but
insists he has not headed it since May 2002.
Krekar is adamant his life would be in danger if he
returned to Iraq.
He has come out in support of "jihad", or holy war,
in Iraq and has compared the US occupation of Iraq
to the Nazi invasion of European countries, and
insisted that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is "a
good man".
Krekar, who was born Najm al-Din Faraj Ahmad in
1956, first made headlines in Norway in 2002, when a
television documentary showed how he frequently
slipped back into northern Iraq to lead the radical
armed separatist group Ansar al-Islam, which sought
the establishment of an Islamic state.
In 2003, before the liberation of Iraq, the U.S.
government portrayed Krekar and his network as a
link between Al Qaeda and the government of Saddam
Hussein. The
claim, however, was never substantiated. He was
arrested several times, in Norway and abroad,www.ekurd.net
and
charged with crimes ranging from terrorism to drug
smuggling, but nothing held up in court.
Earlier Krekar said
"If you have airplanes and I don't, I will hit you
where it really hurts, and 9/11 was like this," he
said. "Bush says bin Laden, al-Zawahari and Zarquawi
are terrorists, but for me they are symbols of
courage."
Ansar
al-Islam group listed as a terrorist organization by
the U.S. and Iraqi Kurdistan. The group is also
suspected in suicide bombings of coalition forces in
Iraqi Kurdistan, Krekar in one of the most wanted in Iraqi Kurdistan region on charges of
terrorist attacks in the region.
Norwegian state radio network NRK reported on
October 9,www.ekurd.net
that
Krekar runs several Internet
sites, including one called www.dorbeen.com
that presents American loses in Iraq and Afghanistan
as positive developments and has links to other
sites with videos of attacks on U.S. forces.
Krekar has refused to talk about the site. NRK said
there is no doubt that the sites are registered to
Krekar's wife and are operated from his home address
in Oslo.
"Osama bin Laden is a good man. I wish him a long
life. He is a good Muslim and he is against the Bush
administration," Krekar, known for his controversial
statements, told AFP in Oslo in 2006.
Ansar al-Islam terrorist attacks in Kurdistan region
(Iraq):
Seven Kurdish border guards
killed in Iraqi Kurdistan ambush by
Ansar al-Islam terrorist group on July 16, 2007
In May 2005 a suicide bomber
killed at least 60 people and
wounded 150 more when he blew himself
up at the office of a Kurdish party in the northern
Iraqi city of Erbil
On
May 9, 2007 a suicide truck
bomber from Ansar al-Islam kills 19, wounds 70 in
Iraqi Kurdistan's capital of Erbil, Kurdish Ansar
al-Islam terrorist group has
claimed responsibility
for the blast.
May 13 was another bloody day for the Kurds, a
suicide car bomb targeted the headquarters of the
KDP party in Makhmour city in Kurdistan region
killed at least 30 people and
wounded 115 others including the
city's mayor.
Nine members of Ansar al-Islam were
arrested for these terrorist attacks. Security
forces in Iraq’s Kurdistan autonomous region have
arrested several followers of previously tolerated
Islamist parties, accusing them of links to
insurgents. www.ekurd.net
On
February 26, 2007,
Houzan Mahmoud, an international representative of
MADRE's sister organization, the Organization of
Women's Freedom in Iraq, received a death threat by
e-mail signed by Ansar al-Islam terrorist group. The
death threat, delivered via e-mail, read, "With the
permission of Great God, we will kill you either in
Iraq or in London by the middle of March, because
you are campaigning against Islam. You should be
sent to God for punishment."
VOI | AFP | AP | NKR
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