Word: ansar
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...Qaeda agents hiding in Iran have had with cohorts scattered around the globe. This indicates, they say, that some of the network's leaders are still active in Iran. One of them, according to a U.S. official, is Abu Mousab al Zarqawi, chief of al-Qaeda's ally Ansar al-Islam. His alleged presence in northern Iraq was cited by Bush as evidence of a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda to help justify the U.S. invasion...
...photographer picked up her first camera in high school and hasn't looked back. A journalistic veteran of last year's Afghan war, Brooks has been in northern Iraq for TIME since February and has covered, among other things, the assault by Kurds and U.S. Special forces on Ansar guerrillas. "The battle with Ansar was similar to Tora Bora" In Afghanistan, she observes. "The Ansar fighters were retreating into mountains, hiding in caves and breaking off into small groups...
...made their acquaintance in the mountain village of Beyara, which is one of the main Ansar bases. Sufis from a nearby village had come to lend a hand clearing up the mosque, which has been rocketed by the U.S. on the grounds that it was an Ansar command post. None of the helpers looked a day under 70, and although they were picking and pulling at the mountain of rubble with vigor, they were not making much headway. They did not mind being interrupted...
...know," my interlocutor answered, with a trace of exasperation. "We don't ask. We're not a political party, you know." I wandered off, but later dropped by again to see how they were doing. With the help of a passing translator I asked them what they thought of Ansar's approach to Islam. One of them stuck his bottom out, and his neighbor exploded with laughter...
...Sensing another linguistic breakdown, I backtracked, checking how my question had been rendered into Kurdish, and whether the gesture had anything to do with the answer. In fact, the translation was right on, and the gesture was a succinct analysis of Ansar theology: They had approached Islam ass-forward. Ansar's philosophy, explained one Sufi, was one of "hate, hate, hate...