Ansar al-Islam
Encyclopedia
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, close to the official Saudi ideology of Wahhabism
Wahhabism
Wahhabism is a religious movement or a branch of Islam. It was developed by an 18th century Muslim theologian from Najd, Saudi Arabia. Ibn Abdul Al-Wahhab advocated purging Islam of what he considered to be impurities and innovations...
with strict application of Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
. The group was formed in the northern provinces of Iraq near the Iranian border, and previously had established bases occupying Biyara to the northeast of Halabja
Halabja
Halabja , is a Kurdish town in Northern Iraq, located about north-east of Baghdad and 8–10 miles from the Iranian border....
. Ansar al-Islam is known as an affiliate of the Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
terror network.
Members of Ansar al-Islam mostly reside in Iran after a joint mission by the Kurdistan Regional Government's
Kurdistan Regional Government
The Kurdistan Regional Government , , is the official ruling body of the predominantly Kurds-populated Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq...
Armed Forces and US Army Special Forces destroyed the group's stronghold in 2003. Since then, the group has allegedly launched frequent attacks against the Kurdistan Region in attempt to reestablish themselves in the region. Kurdish authorities allege that the group frequently aids Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
in its border incursions against Kurdish rebels along the Iran-Iraq border.
History
Ansar al-Islam was formed in September 2001 as a merger of Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam), led by Abu Abdallah al-Shafi'i, and a splinter group from the Islamic Movement of KurdistanIslamic Movement of Kurdistan
The Islamic Movement of Kurdistan is an Islamist group founded in 1979 by Shaykh Uthman Abd-Aziz and several other Sunni mullahs who were all part of the non-political "Union of Religious Scholars" . The party's main support comes from in and around that town of Halabjah...
led by Mullah Krekar
Mullah Krekar
Mullah Krekar , is a Kurdish Sunni Islamist terrorist who came to Norway as a refugee from northern Iraq in 1991. His wife and four children have Norwegian citizenship, but not Krekar himself. He speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Norwegian and English...
. Krekar became the leader of the merged Ansar al-Islam, which opposed an agreement made between IMK and the dominant Kurdish group in the area, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a Kurdish political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was founded on June 1, 1975, by coordinations between Jalal Talabani and Nawshirwan Mustafa...
(PUK). The group later made an allegiance to al-Qaeda and allegedly received direct funds from the terror network.
Villagers under their control were subjected to harsh sharia laws; musical instruments were destroyed and singing forbidden. The only school for girls in the area was destroyed, and all pictures of women removed from merchandise labels. Sufi shrines were desecrated and members of the Kaka'i (a religious group also known as Ahl-e Haqq
Ahl-e Haqq
The Ahl-e Haqq or Yârsân , are members of a religion founded by Sultan Sahak in the late 14th century in western Iran. The total number of members is estimated at around 1,000,000, primarily found in western Iran and Iraq, mostly ethnic Kurds and Laks, though there are also smaller groups of Luri,...
) were forced to convert to Islam or flee. Former prisoners of the group also claim that Ansar al-Islam routinely uses torture and severe beatings when interrogating prisoners. Beheading of prisoners has also been reported.
Ansar al-Islam initially comprised approximately 300 men, many of these veterans from the Soviet-Afghan War, and a proportion being neither Kurd nor Arab. During its stay in the Biyara region the group would have needed logistical support from Iran, prompting allegations of support from "powerful factions in Iran."
Operations after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq
Special Activities Division
The Special Activities Division is a division in the United States Central Intelligence Agency's National Clandestine Service responsible for covert operations known as "special activities"...
(SAD) Paramilitary teams entered Iraq before the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
. SAD teams then combined with US Army Special Forces and the PUK
PUK
PUK may stand for:* Patriotic Union of Kurdistan * Partia e Unitetit Kombėtar * Pin Unlock Key used in GSM mobile phones* Prefectural University of KumamotoPuk may refer to:...
Peshmerga
Peshmerga
Peshmerga or Peshmerge is the term used by Kurds to refer to armed Kurdish fighters. Literally meaning "those who face death" the Peshmerga forces of Kurdistan have been in existence since the advent of the Kurdish independence movement in the early 1920s, following the collapse of the Ottoman...
to defeat Ansar al-Islam. This battle was for territory along the Iranian border that was controlled by Ansar al-Islam, and was executed prior to the invasion in February 2003. The US side was carried out by Paramilitary Officers from SAD and the Army's 10th Special Forces Group
10th Special Forces Group (United States)
The 10th Special Forces Group is an Active Duty United States Army Special Forces group. The 10th Special Forces Group is responsible for operations within the EUCOM area of responsibility, as part of the Special Operations Command, Europe , as well as parts of Africa and the Middle East.10th SFG...
. It resulted in the deaths of a substantial number of militants and the uncovering of a chemical weapons
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
facility at Sargat. Sargat was the only facility of its type discovered in Iraq.
Ansar al-Islam detonated a suicide car bomb on March 22, 2003, killing Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n journalist Paul Moran
Paul Moran (photojournalist)
Paul Moran , born as the youngest of four children in Adelaide, was a freelance photojournalist, the first media person killed in the 2003 Invasion of Iraq....
and several others. The group is also thought to have been responsible for a September 9, 2003 attempted bombing of a United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
office in Arbil
Arbil
Arbil / Hewlêr is the fourth largest city in Iraq after Baghdad, Basra and Mosul...
, which killed three people.
On February 1, 2004 suicide bombings hit parallel EID-celebrations arranged by the two main Kurdish parties, PUK and Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq (KDP), in the Kurdish capital of Arbil, killing 109 and wounding more than 200 partygoers. Responsibility for this attack was claimed by the then unknown group Ansar al-Sunnah, and stated to be in support of "our brothers in Ansar al-Islam."
While many former activists in Ansar al-Islam have joined the Ansar al-Sunnah and similar groups, Kurdish authorities claim the organization is still active in Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
. In September 2006, 11 alleged members of Ansar al-Islam were hanged in Arbil.
Ansar al-Islam has an extensive network in Europe organizing finance and support for armed attacks within Iraq. Several members of such groups have been arrested in European countries such as Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
In December 2007 the Ansar al-Sunnah formally acknowledged being derived from the Ansar al-Islam, and reverted their name to the original.
In November 2008 an archbishop in Mosul received a threat signed by the "ansar al-islam brigades", warning all Christians to leave Iraq or else be killed.
On May 4, 2010 Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i
Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i
Abu Abdullah al Shafi'i was the leader of the Jund al Islam and the Ansar Al Sunna from 2003-2010. In 2010, he was captured and is being held in Abu Ghraib prison to the present....
, Ansar al-Islam's leader since Mullah Krekar left for Norway in 2003, was captured by US forces in Baghdad.
Alleged links to Saddam Hussein
In the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
, the Bush administration claimed that Ansar al-Islam had links with Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, attempting to establish a link between Hussein and al-Qaeda.
The Senate Report on Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq concluded that Saddam "was aware of Ansar al-Islam and al-Qa'ida presence in northeastern Iraq, but the groups' presence was considered a threat to the regime and the Iraqi government attempted intelligence collection operations against them. The DIA
Dia
Dia is free and open source general-purpose diagramming software, developed originally by Alexander Larsson. Dia uses a controlled single document interface similar to GIMP and Sodipodi.- Features :...
[Defense Intelligence Agency] stated that information from senior Ansar al-Islam detainees revealed that the group viewed Saddam's regime as apostate, and denied any relationship with it."
The leader of Ansar al-Islam, Mullah Krekar
Mullah Krekar
Mullah Krekar , is a Kurdish Sunni Islamist terrorist who came to Norway as a refugee from northern Iraq in 1991. His wife and four children have Norwegian citizenship, but not Krekar himself. He speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Norwegian and English...
, has also called Saddam Hussein his sworn enemy.
Furthermore, in a "Special Analysis" report dated July 31, 2002, the Defense Intelligence Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency is a member of the Intelligence Community of the United States, and is the central producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense, employing over 16,500 U.S. military and civilian employees worldwide...
concluded the following regarding alleged connections between Saddam's regime and Ansar al-Islam:
"Should regime support to Ansar al-Islam be proven, this will not necessarily implicate the regime in supporting al-Qa'ida. Ansar al-Islam is an independent organization that receives assistance from al-Qa'ida, but is not a branch of the group. The Iraqi regime seeks to influence and manipulate political events in the Kurdish-controlled north and probably has some type of assets in contact with Ansar al-Islam, either through liaison or through penetration by an intelligence asset."
However, in February 2003, then United States Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
told the United Nations Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
, "Baghdad has an agent in the most senior levels of the radical organization, Ansar al-Islam, that controls this corner of Iraq. In 2000 this agent offered Al Qaida safe haven in the region. After we swept Al Qaida from Afghanistan, some of its members accepted this safe haven." The general consensus of experts, as well as the conclusion of the intelligence community and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is that Saddam was infiltrating the group but that the two parties remained hostile to each other and did not establish a collaborative relationship.
Colin Powell has since acknowledged that his speech presented no hard evidence of collaboration between Saddam and al-Qaeda; he told reporters at a State Department press conference that "I have not seen smoking gun, concrete evidence about the connection, but I do believe the connections existed." However, after Powell left office, he acknowledged that he was skeptical of the evidence presented to him for the speech. He told Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters
Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...
in an interview that he considered the speech a "blot" on his record and that he feels "terrible" about assertions that he made in the speech that turned out to be false. He said, "There were some people in the intelligence community who knew at that time that some of these sources were not good, and shouldn't be relied upon, and they didn't speak up. That devastated me." When asked specifically about a Saddam/al-Qaeda connection, Powell responded, "I have never seen a connection. … I can't think otherwise because I'd never seen evidence to suggest there was one."
Swedish fund-raising case
Ali Berzengi and Ferman Abdulla, the owner of a falafelFalafel
Falafel is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas and/or fava beans. Falafel is usually served in a pita, which acts as a pocket, or wrapped in a flatbread known as lafa. The falafel balls are topped with salads, pickled vegetables, hot sauce, and drizzled with tahini-based sauces...
stand in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, raised money for what they claimed was poor children and Muslims. The money was then transferred through Abdulla's food stand, using the hawala
Hawala
Hawala is an informal value transfer system based on the performance and honor of a huge network of money brokers, which are primarily located in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and South Asia...
transfer system. The Swedish Security Service
Swedish Security Service
The Swedish Security Service , former name Rikspolisstyrelsens säkerhetsavdelning , is the security service of Sweden, belonging to the Swedish National Police Board....
was informed in 2002 that people in Sweden had transferred money to Ansar al-Islam. On April 19, 2004, Berzengi and Abdulla were arrested along with another Iraqi, Shaho Shahab, and Lebanese
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
-born Bilal Ramadan. Ramadan was released in September after a court found that there wasn't enough evidence to keep him in custody. Shahab was released in December after the government decided to deport him to Iraq. However, since Shahab risks receiving the death penalty in his home country, the deportation has not been carried out. In Abdulla's apartment the police found a letter from a man who claimed to have been in contact with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh was a Jordanian militant Islamist who ran a paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan...
, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is a popular name for the Iraqi division of the international Salafi jihadi militant organization al-Qaeda. It is recognized as a part of the greater Iraqi insurgency....
, as well as a detailed manual on how to use coded language.
On May 12, 2005, Abdulla and Berzengi were convicted by the Stockholm District Court for "planning of terrorist offences" and "planning of public devastation" according to Swedish law. Accord to the court they had transferred approximately one million SEK
Swedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
to Ansar al-Islam. According to the court there was strong evidence that the collected money had the specific purpose of financing terrorist attacks. Much of the evidence presented consisted of secret wire-tappings from U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
intelligence sources. In the recordings Abdulla and Berzengi used coded language to describe the attacks. Berzengi, who according to the court was the leading of the two, was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment and Abdulla to six years. The Svea Court of Appeal
Svea Court of Appeal
The Svea Court of Appeal , located in Stockholm, is one of six appellate courts in the Swedish legal system. It was founded in 1614 and was the highest court in Sweden until 1789, when the Supreme Court of Sweden was established....
later reduced the sentences to five years for Berzengi and four and a half year for Abdulla. The appeal to the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Sweden
The Supreme Court of Sweden is the supreme court and the third and final instance in all civil and criminal cases in Sweden. Before a case can be decided by the Supreme Court, leave to appeal must be obtained, and with few exceptions, leave to appeal can be granted only when the case is of...
was denied. The both are also to be deported back to Iraq after serving their sentences in Sweden. Abdulla is currently serving his sentence at the Norrköping Prison.
The conviction of Berzengi and Abdulla was the first since the new Swedish terrorism legislation was taken into effect on July 1, 2003. It was also the first ever conviction in Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
of people financing terrorism.
External links
- The Rise and Fall of Ansar al-Islam, Christian Science Monitor
- Ansar al-Islam terrorist attacks
- Human Rights Watch: Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan
- Radical Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan: Ansar al-Islam
- Zarqawi and the 'al-Qaeda link', February 5, 2003.
- Mullah Krekar arrested ( mirrored version ), March 21, 2003.
- Ansar al-Islam: Postmortem or Prelude to More Attacks?, April 3, 2003.
- Time.com article on first AI suicide attack, February 26, 2003
- Ansar al-Islam: Iraq's al-Qaeda Connection, January 15, 2003
- State Department Designation of Ansar Al-Islam,February 20, 2003
- Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Designation of Ansar al-Islam (Al), Redesignation of Three Others (State Department, March 22, 2004
- Athena Intelligence Advanced Research Network on Insurgency and Terrorism
- The Great Terror, The New Yorker
- The Unknown: The C.I.A. and the Pentagon take another look at Al Qaeda and Iraq, The New Yorker