Barzani Meets PUK Delegation, Agreement on Electricity Issue

 July 7, 2002

A statement by the General Command of Peshmerga defense forces said that members of the Al Qaeda-affiliate Islamic terrorists of Ansar Al-Islam launched a concerted and massive attack, on the night of July 4, against the positions of the Kurdistan Peshmerga forces at Girda Drozna, Tapi Safa, Tapa Kurra and Shashka villages in the mountainous  Sirwan district close to the Iranian border . The statement confirmed that the attack was thwarted by the Peshmerga forces who inflicted heavy casualties- 17 dead and injured- on the terrorists. The Peshmerga suffered 8 martyrs and 5 wounded, the statement added. Among those killed was a leading terrorist operative by the name of Abu Bakir Hawleri, who was identified recently as the mastermind behind the assassination of the prominent Kurdistan Democratic Party leader, Faranso Hareeri, last year.

Ansar Al-Islam is the fringe Islamist faction which has proclaimed its agenda as imposing a medievalist-Salafist Wahabbi form of Islam on the people of the region through intimidation, suicidal missions and terror against the secular political and civic organizations and the civilian population. In reality the group was established by Al Qaeda with the specific task of disrupting and destabilizing the Kurdistan region. Furthermore, the group has been supported logistically and financially by the Iraqi intelligence service Al Mukhabarat. The leaders of the group are Afghan-Arab veterans , schooled, financed and trained by Osama bin Laden's terrorist apparatus in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Recently, the Secretary of the Kurdistan Toilers Party, Qadir Aziz disclosed that there is documentary evidence confirming the direct support of the Iraqi regime to the nefarious agenda of Ansar Al-Islam. He stated that late in March this year, the group received $35,000 from the Kirkuk branch of Al Mukhabarat, in addition to a considerable quantities of arms. Members of the terrorist group have been seen wearing Afghani military garb, training on military tactics, sabotage and explosives , in Iraqi military camps inside the city of Tikrit. Ansar Al-Islam uses Islamic cover for its program to sow discord and xenophobia in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is noteworthy that the group completely ignores the genocidal Halabja and Anfal acts of the Iraqi regime against the fellow 'Muslim' Kurdish nation. In effect it compliments the racist Arabization  and ethnic cleansing policies of the regime in areas of Kurdistan still under its control such Kirkuk, Khanaqin, Tuz Khurmatu, Makhmoor, Sheikhan and Jangar.

 

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