Word: ansar
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...what is it willing to release? To convince skeptics that Saddam not only could but has formed an alliance with the same kind of terrorists who caused the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. officials are planning to disclose recent links between Baghdad and the murky band of Kurdish fundamentalists called Ansar al-Islam. They say the group, based in a corner of northern Iraq outside Baghdad's control, is an al-Qaeda operation, trained by al-Qaeda men in Afghanistan and harboring al-Qaeda refugees who fled the fighting there...
...officials tell TIME they have also obtained electronic messages passed between Baghdad and the group. "There's all sorts of signal intercepts that indicate communications," says a State Department official. "There's clearly a dialogue going on." Those threads, the official tells TIME, suggest Ansar had approached Baghdad to obtain help making biological and chemical weapons. But after that, the intelligence peters out. Did Baghdad help them? "That we don't know," the official says. But some U.S. officials say they do know Ansar eventually figured out how to make toxins...
...refugee camp. The Israeli army claimed most of the victims were members of militant groups and that at least five were from Hamas. Palestinians accused troops of firing indiscriminately. IRAQ Kurd vs. Kurd At least 45 fighters were killed in a battle between two groups of Iraqi Kurds. The Ansar al-Islam, an extremist group linked to al-Qaeda, launched an attack on positions held by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The anti-Saddam p.u.k., which controls the eastern section of the autonomous zone maintained by British and U.S. air cover, said it repulsed the attackers. SRI LANKA Tigers Purr...
...March and May of this year, according to a senior Kurdish official, American teams from the Defense Department and the CIA visited Iraqi Kurdistan to investigate Ansar al-Islam, a terrorist group that has been linked to al-Qaeda and that has its base in caves on the border between Iraq and Iran. (The Americans didn't hide their presence; they drove black Grand Cherokee SUVs with communications gear on the roof, not exactly common in Kurdistan.) The U.S. teams promised the Kurds that they would be back, and they have kept their word. U.S. officials tell TIME that within...
...while Ansar may share Saddam's desire to destroy the Kurdish leadership--in April, Ansar unsuccessfully attempted to kill one faction's prime minister when Assistant Secretary of State Ryan Crocker was visiting the area--the Iraqi dictator does not appear to have direct control over the Kurdish militants. Both Saddam and al-Qaeda may find Ansar's activities useful, but there's no evidence that the group serves as a link between them...