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news
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Bomb
in Iraqi Kurdistan kills boy, 4, wounds two others: police
Bahceli: Barzani's Statement Is Unacceptable How Kurdistan's first suicide bomber changed his mind Interrogations link Al Qaeda to Iraq Two hundred Iraqi Kurdish immigrants land in southern Italy Turkey, Iraqi Kurdish Tensions High Jalal Talabani Interview with Asharq Al-Awsat Iraqi Kurd Fighters Seen More Organized Iranian troops deployed on Iraqi border: Kurds Saddam's son says Iran not al-Qaeda behind Kurdistan Islamist group KDP Slams Berlin Embassy Seizure as "Terrorism" Barham Salih: The Radical group Ansar al-Islam Plans Attacks Talabani Wants US Date for Post-Saddam Poll U.S. Monitors Kurdish Extremists raq orders banks to be opened in Kurdistan Saddam will not stop me being a Kurd
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11 members of Iraqi Islamic Ansar al-Islam group surrendered to Kurdish authorities in North Iraq
Sep 26, 2002 The Associated Press Eleven members of a Kurdish extremist group with suspected ties to al-Qaida have surrendered to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, an official of a U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurdish group said in Damascus. Adel Murad, a Damascus-based official with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said two militants of the Ansar al-Islam group had surrendered Sept. 21 in Sulaimaneyah and nine others Tuesday. He identified those arrested last week as Jawad Jamal Najeeb, an Iraqi Arab, and Bakr Hussein Muhammad. Murad said Najeeb cooperated with al-Qaida in smuggling hashish from Afghanistan in 1998. According to U.S. officials, Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam) was formed in December 2001, one of numerous small splinter factions in the region of northern Iraq that is controlled by ethnic Kurds. It has several hundred members and broke away from another group, Jun al-Islam, which itself was formed in September 2001. It is composed primarily of Kurds - and some Arabs - who follow an extremist brand of Sunni Islam, but their focus is primarily opposing the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two large secular Kurdish groups that oppose Saddam Hussein with U.S. support. The group's fighters are also believed to have trained with al-Qaida and U.S. officials suspect it of helping hide al-Qaida members fleeing Afghanistan.
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