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news
headlines
Kurds
Draw up post-Saddam Constitution for Iraq
High-ranking
PKK Member Jailed For Three Years in Germany
Pro-Saddam
Fighters Attack Kurds
Statement
by Ministry of Industry and Energy (KDP) on Electricity Supply
Kurdish
leader Talabani in Talks With Saudi Officials: PUK
Ocalan
Ocalan: USA will make massacre
UN
Deal Leaves Iraq Kurds at Baghdad's Mercy
Kurds,
Secure in North Iraq, Are Cool to a U.S. Offensive
Political
Changes Reduce Kurdistan Honor Killings
Ladenite
Ansar Al-Islam Commits New Terrorist Act
Top
Court to Deliberate on HADEP Objections in Closure Case
Barzani
Meets PUK Delegation, Agreement on Electricity Issue
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Attack by Islamist radicals in northern Iraq brings Kurdish factions closer AFP SULEIMANIYA, The two main Kurdish factions sharing control of northern Iraq have held talks this week on implementing a US-brokered peace deal and reining in Islamist radicals, local officials said here Wednesday. A member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) administration met on Wednesday with Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani, whose faction is based in the eastern city of Suleimaniya, to "thank" him for the PUK's condemnation of an attack by the Islamist radicals on graves of leaders of an Islamic sect. The KDP official, Adnan al-Naqshabandi, is himself affiliated to the Naqshabandi sect targeted by members of an outfit calling itself Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam). Ansar al-Islam was blamed for last week's desecration of the mausoleum of the spiritual leader and other clerics of the sect in an area close to the mountainous Biara region that is considered the group's stronghold. The PUK has clashed in recent months with the Islamist extremists in the eastern part of Iraqi Kurdistan it controls, pushing them back to Biara, which borders Iran. A PUK spokesman told AFP in May that Ansar al-Islam comprises a number of groupings, including 200 to 300 members of the so-called Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam). The fundamentalists are suspected of being responsible for a series of recent incidents, including bomb blasts, in the Kurdish enclave, which has been off limits to the Baghdad government since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. Members of the PUK and KDP political bureaux agreed to "unite efforts against terrorism" during a meeting in Suleimaniya Monday that focused on implementation of the 1998 US-brokered peace deal between their two parties, a PUK official told AFP. The KDP and PUK often fought each other in the past for predominance in the Western-protected enclave in northern Iraq. But PUK leader Talabani and KDP chief Massoud Barzani agreed during a meeting in Germany in mid-April to complete the implementation of the 1998 peace accord and to pool their two factions' resources to combat Islamist radicals.
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