Word: al-zarqawi
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Dates: during 2003-2003
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...most hospitable ally for al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq remains Ansar al-Islam, the militant group of Afghan-trained fighters that was based in northern Iraq before the war; hundreds of Ansar members fled to Iran after a U.S.-led assault on their base in March. Since then, says a security chief in Kurdistan named Khasraw, the Ansar fighters have returned to Iraq and established cells in Fallujah and Baghdad, with the aim to "attack U.S. interests everywhere on orders from outside, namely al-Qaeda." U.S. agencies believe that Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, a suspected al-Qaeda operative and senior...
...Besides the possibility of the Prague encounter, the claim of an Iraq-bin Laden link rest on three pillars: The fact that "bin Laden associate" Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who runs the Islamist terror network suspected of killing a U.S. diplomat in Jordan, had taken shelter in Baghdad after being wounded in Afghanistan; The fact that the Kurdish Islamist group attacking mainstream pro-U.S. Kurdish groups in northeastern Iraq had received cash and training from al-Qaeda; and Iraqi records show that an Iraqi emissary had held a meeting or meetings with bin Laden representatives in Afghanistan...
...ties current? Powell claimed that Baghdad "harbors a deadly terrorist network" headed by an al-Qaeda operative named Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi. A Jordanian, al-Zarqawi, 36, last year had a leg amputated in Baghdad after he was wounded in the war in Afghanistan. During al-Zarqawi's two-month stay in Baghdad, Powell alleged, two dozen "al-Qaeda affiliates" established a cell in the city. According to Powell, al-Zarqawi, whose whereabouts are unknown, provided weapons and money to the murderers of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley in Jordan last October. Powell showed the U.N. a satellite photo...
Though the Secretary did not establish a link between al-Zarqawi's cell and the government of Iraq, it's hard to imagine such a unit operating under Saddam's iron-fisted regime without official acquiescence. Al-Zarqawi's alleged poisons camp, however, is located in northern Iraq, which is under Kurdish rule, not Saddam's control. After Powell's speech, officials of Ansar al-Islam, a militant Kurdish group that includes veterans of al-Qaeda camps, escorted journalists to a ramshackle dirt encampment in the village of Serget whose layout appeared to match Powell's satellite photo. Reporters were...