Spoetnik
15-01-05, 15:43
Ansar al-Islam spreads its wings
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Ansar al-Islam's battlefield appears to be expanding. Until recently, this Islamist extremist group was known mainly for its violent attacks inside Iraq. Now indicators suggest that it poses a growing threat to Europe as well.
In early December, a plot to assassinate Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during his visit to Berlin was unearthed. Three Iraqis with suspected links to Ansar-al Islam were taken into custody in Germany. A few months earlier, Ansar al-Islam's hand was suspected in a plot to attack a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit meeting in Istanbul.
The presence of Ansar al-Islam members in Germany or elsewhere in Europe is not new. At least 20 known supporters of Ansar al-Islam have been rounded up in Germany alone over the past year, and, according to German officials, about 100 Ansar al-Islam members are based in the country. The group is believed to have recruited volunteers in Italy and Britain. And its founder/leader Mullah Krekar has lived as a refugee in Norway since 1991.
According to the US State Department, Ansar al-Islam is a radical Islamist group comprising Iraqi Kurds and Arabs who have vowed to establish an independent Islamic state in northern Iraq. Ansar al-Islam came together as a group, initially under the name of Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam) in September, 2001, a week before the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Its constituent groups, however, were active for several years earlier in Iraqi Kurdistan. Jonathan Schanzer, a specialist in radical Islamic movements at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, traces the roots of Ansar al-Islam to the splintering of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan in the mid-1990s.
The emergence of Islamist organizations in Iraqi Kurdistan (Kurdish nationalism has on the whole been secular) has been attributed often to the 1979 Islamic revolution in neighboring Iran. But this argument overlooks the fact that this revolution fueled Shi'ite, rather than Sunni, extremism worldwide. Middle East analysts like Mahan Abedin attribute the rise of Ansar al-Islam to the "local political and economic dynamics" of the Kurdish areas of Iraq. "After the ejection of Iraqi forces from Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991, the two main Kurdish factions, the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, quickly established their hegemony over much of that region," said Abedin. But bitter rivalry and bloodletting between them gave space for the rise of Islamist organizations, especially radical ones like Ansar al-Islam, he argues.
Ansar al-Islam's goal is to transform Iraqi Kurdistan into an Islamic state. According to Human Rights Watch, the group enforced the veiling of women and made it obligatory for men to have beards. It banned music, called for segregation of the sexes and barred women from education and employment. It announced Islamic punishments of amputation, flogging and stoning to death for offenses such as theft, the consumption of alcohol and adultery.
Initially it directed its attacks against the secular Kurdish groups and anyone who did not fall in line with its Islamization agenda. Since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, Ansar al-Islam has been targeting the US-led coalition and Iraq's US-backed interim government. It is said to have carried out over 40 suicide bombings in Iraq and some of the attacks it had a hand in include the bombing of the Jordanian Embassy and the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, the two suicide bombings in Irbil at offices of the two main Kurdish political parties, the suicide bombings of Shi'ite shrines in Baghdad and Karbala and the recent attack on the US base in Mosul.
American officials maintain that Ansar al-Islam is closely associated with al-Qaeda, that its members trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, and that it continues to receive funding, training, equipment, and combat support from al-Qaeda. They say that Ansar al-Islam in turn provided safe haven for al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban regime there in late 2001. In the run-up to its invasion of Iraq, the US accused former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein of links with al-Qaeda, a claim it could never substantiate. Subsequently, it named Ansar al-Islam as the "missing link" between the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda.
While Ansar al-Islam's ties with al-Qaeda might indeed be strong and growing, to describe it as an al-Qaeda surrogate, as have sections of the Western media, would be overstating the link. For one, Ansar al-Islam might have received seed money from al-Qaeda, but its origin and formation had more to do with local circumstances rather than with al-Qaeda's global mission. And the deepening relationship is more of a post-invasion phenomenon, with al-Qaeda seeing an opportunity in Ansar al-Islam as well as the chaotic situation in occupied Iraq to further its agenda.
In September 2003, a hitherto unknown group, Ansar al-Sunna - officially declared its existence in a statement issued on the Internet, claiming that it had evolved from the coming together of Kurdish Ansar al-Islam operatives, foreign al-Qaeda fighters and newly mobilized Iraqi Sunnis. Kurdish newspaper Hawlati traced the formation of the group to a split within Ansar al-Islam a year earlier, but the core of Ansar al-Sunna appears to consist of Ansar al-Islam members, prompting some analysts to describe Ansar al-Sunna as reflective of the evolving Ansar al-Islam.
The composition of Ansar al-Islam has changed significantly over the years. Most of its suicide bombers who have given pre-operation videos appear to be non-Iraqi Arabs. While the goal of Ansar al-Islam in its early incarnation was to achieve in Iraq "the Muslims' hope of an Islamic country where Islam and its people are strong", the organization increasingly presents itself as a pan-Islamic movement. Several of its fighters today are from outside Iraq - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and even Europe.
According to the New York Times, Ansar al-Islam was among the groups that recruited Muslims in Europe to fight in Iraq. They were recruited through mosques, Muslim centers and militant websites. The network of recruiters first appeared in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Norway within months of the US-led invasion. That recruitment effort has now spread to other countries in Europe, including Belgium and Switzerland. The network apparently provides forged documents, financing, training and information about infiltration routes into Iraq.
Italy is said to be an important link in this network. Its thriving false-document industry is apparently being put to good use by the network. While in the past Italy was seen as an essential stopover point for terrorists looking for false documents, now this country is emerging as a recruiting ground for the war in Iraq. The attack on the UN headquarters in 2003 is said to have been carried out by a suicide bomber from Italy.
While the recruiting of fighters from Europe has evoked unease in Western capitals, what is causing mounting anxiety is the likely return home of these fighters, with combat experience in Iraq. In recent years, almost all major militants arrested in Europe were those who had fought in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Bosnia. On returning home, these European fighters used their combat experience acquired from these battlegrounds to plot and carry out attacks in Europe.
Now European governments fear that battle-hardened fighters returning home from Iraq will put their expertise to use on European soil. The plot to assassinate Allawi in Berlin indicates that such fears might not be misplaced.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GA15Ak02.html
Drie maal hoezee voor de VS. Iraq is van een derdewereldland tot een terreurstaat geworden en de groeperingen daar zijn hun terreur aan het exporteren.
Vooral Europa moet dankbaar zijn, Iraq tenslotte ligt naast de deur.
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Ansar al-Islam's battlefield appears to be expanding. Until recently, this Islamist extremist group was known mainly for its violent attacks inside Iraq. Now indicators suggest that it poses a growing threat to Europe as well.
In early December, a plot to assassinate Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during his visit to Berlin was unearthed. Three Iraqis with suspected links to Ansar-al Islam were taken into custody in Germany. A few months earlier, Ansar al-Islam's hand was suspected in a plot to attack a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit meeting in Istanbul.
The presence of Ansar al-Islam members in Germany or elsewhere in Europe is not new. At least 20 known supporters of Ansar al-Islam have been rounded up in Germany alone over the past year, and, according to German officials, about 100 Ansar al-Islam members are based in the country. The group is believed to have recruited volunteers in Italy and Britain. And its founder/leader Mullah Krekar has lived as a refugee in Norway since 1991.
According to the US State Department, Ansar al-Islam is a radical Islamist group comprising Iraqi Kurds and Arabs who have vowed to establish an independent Islamic state in northern Iraq. Ansar al-Islam came together as a group, initially under the name of Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam) in September, 2001, a week before the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Its constituent groups, however, were active for several years earlier in Iraqi Kurdistan. Jonathan Schanzer, a specialist in radical Islamic movements at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, traces the roots of Ansar al-Islam to the splintering of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan in the mid-1990s.
The emergence of Islamist organizations in Iraqi Kurdistan (Kurdish nationalism has on the whole been secular) has been attributed often to the 1979 Islamic revolution in neighboring Iran. But this argument overlooks the fact that this revolution fueled Shi'ite, rather than Sunni, extremism worldwide. Middle East analysts like Mahan Abedin attribute the rise of Ansar al-Islam to the "local political and economic dynamics" of the Kurdish areas of Iraq. "After the ejection of Iraqi forces from Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991, the two main Kurdish factions, the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, quickly established their hegemony over much of that region," said Abedin. But bitter rivalry and bloodletting between them gave space for the rise of Islamist organizations, especially radical ones like Ansar al-Islam, he argues.
Ansar al-Islam's goal is to transform Iraqi Kurdistan into an Islamic state. According to Human Rights Watch, the group enforced the veiling of women and made it obligatory for men to have beards. It banned music, called for segregation of the sexes and barred women from education and employment. It announced Islamic punishments of amputation, flogging and stoning to death for offenses such as theft, the consumption of alcohol and adultery.
Initially it directed its attacks against the secular Kurdish groups and anyone who did not fall in line with its Islamization agenda. Since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, Ansar al-Islam has been targeting the US-led coalition and Iraq's US-backed interim government. It is said to have carried out over 40 suicide bombings in Iraq and some of the attacks it had a hand in include the bombing of the Jordanian Embassy and the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, the two suicide bombings in Irbil at offices of the two main Kurdish political parties, the suicide bombings of Shi'ite shrines in Baghdad and Karbala and the recent attack on the US base in Mosul.
American officials maintain that Ansar al-Islam is closely associated with al-Qaeda, that its members trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, and that it continues to receive funding, training, equipment, and combat support from al-Qaeda. They say that Ansar al-Islam in turn provided safe haven for al-Qaeda fighters fleeing Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban regime there in late 2001. In the run-up to its invasion of Iraq, the US accused former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein of links with al-Qaeda, a claim it could never substantiate. Subsequently, it named Ansar al-Islam as the "missing link" between the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda.
While Ansar al-Islam's ties with al-Qaeda might indeed be strong and growing, to describe it as an al-Qaeda surrogate, as have sections of the Western media, would be overstating the link. For one, Ansar al-Islam might have received seed money from al-Qaeda, but its origin and formation had more to do with local circumstances rather than with al-Qaeda's global mission. And the deepening relationship is more of a post-invasion phenomenon, with al-Qaeda seeing an opportunity in Ansar al-Islam as well as the chaotic situation in occupied Iraq to further its agenda.
In September 2003, a hitherto unknown group, Ansar al-Sunna - officially declared its existence in a statement issued on the Internet, claiming that it had evolved from the coming together of Kurdish Ansar al-Islam operatives, foreign al-Qaeda fighters and newly mobilized Iraqi Sunnis. Kurdish newspaper Hawlati traced the formation of the group to a split within Ansar al-Islam a year earlier, but the core of Ansar al-Sunna appears to consist of Ansar al-Islam members, prompting some analysts to describe Ansar al-Sunna as reflective of the evolving Ansar al-Islam.
The composition of Ansar al-Islam has changed significantly over the years. Most of its suicide bombers who have given pre-operation videos appear to be non-Iraqi Arabs. While the goal of Ansar al-Islam in its early incarnation was to achieve in Iraq "the Muslims' hope of an Islamic country where Islam and its people are strong", the organization increasingly presents itself as a pan-Islamic movement. Several of its fighters today are from outside Iraq - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and even Europe.
According to the New York Times, Ansar al-Islam was among the groups that recruited Muslims in Europe to fight in Iraq. They were recruited through mosques, Muslim centers and militant websites. The network of recruiters first appeared in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Norway within months of the US-led invasion. That recruitment effort has now spread to other countries in Europe, including Belgium and Switzerland. The network apparently provides forged documents, financing, training and information about infiltration routes into Iraq.
Italy is said to be an important link in this network. Its thriving false-document industry is apparently being put to good use by the network. While in the past Italy was seen as an essential stopover point for terrorists looking for false documents, now this country is emerging as a recruiting ground for the war in Iraq. The attack on the UN headquarters in 2003 is said to have been carried out by a suicide bomber from Italy.
While the recruiting of fighters from Europe has evoked unease in Western capitals, what is causing mounting anxiety is the likely return home of these fighters, with combat experience in Iraq. In recent years, almost all major militants arrested in Europe were those who had fought in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Bosnia. On returning home, these European fighters used their combat experience acquired from these battlegrounds to plot and carry out attacks in Europe.
Now European governments fear that battle-hardened fighters returning home from Iraq will put their expertise to use on European soil. The plot to assassinate Allawi in Berlin indicates that such fears might not be misplaced.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GA15Ak02.html
Drie maal hoezee voor de VS. Iraq is van een derdewereldland tot een terreurstaat geworden en de groeperingen daar zijn hun terreur aan het exporteren.
Vooral Europa moet dankbaar zijn, Iraq tenslotte ligt naast de deur.