Associated Press

December 15, 2002 Sunday

HEADLINE: Militant group puts battle on the Web

BYLINE: BORZOU DARAGAHI; Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: SULAYMANIA, Iraq

BODY:
A militant Islamic group operating in northern Iraq - and accused of ties to al-Qaida - has placed videos of its battle with a Kurdish militia on its web site.

Ansar al-Islam's ansarislam.com shows the ferocity of a battle earlier this month that left scores dead. In one scene, as a barrage of rockets hits a hilltop target, a voice cries "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great."

Stirring battle scenes, either video or still, have become a common propaganda tool of groups like Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerrilla organization that puts such footage on its own satellite television station, Afghanistan's Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida.

"Ansar, like its parent network al-Qaida, uses Internet technology for its propaganda," said Barham Salih, prime minister of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan-controlled section of Iraqi Kurdistan. "Ansar is a deadly organization that wants to promote fear among its opponents using every means."

Patriotic Union officials have said the group is an offshoot of al-Qaida, the group held responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. Ansar officials say that although some of their members have trained with bin Laden's group in Afghanistan, they're not under al-Qaida's control.

E-mails sent to an address on Ansar's web site and to the site administrators went unanswered.

Islamic militants have been active in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq, controlled by the Patriotic Union and the Kurdistan Democratic Party under U.S.-British protection since a failed uprising against Saddam Hussein in 1991. Ansar al-Islam militants allegedly attempted to assassinate Salih earlier this year. Suspected Islamist militants killed Franso Hariri, governor of Kurdistan Democratic Party-controlled Irbil, last February. Kurdish officials last week arrested a 17-year-old alleged suicide bomber on a mission to kill the Patriotic Union's security chief.

The Dec. 4 battle was the bloodiest involving Ansar. The group's web site claims it killed 103 and wounded 117 soldiers of the Patriotic Union. According to the Patriotic Union, the battle left 53 of its fighters of dead and 31 wounded.

The Ansar web site claims it lost four soldiers. Patriotic Union officials say they killed 21 to 25 Ansar rebels in the initial battle and in the counterassault later that evening. One of those killed, said a senior Patriotic Union official, was Abdulla Khalifana, Ansar's deputy commander in chief.

In the years since the Kurds established autonomy under Western protection in northern Iraq, their three provinces have grown into a relatively prosperous enclave. Satellite-powered Internet cafes have sprouted up in major cities and nascent Internet service providers have begun offering home connections to the web. Software stores sell pirated copies of sophisticated web design programs for several dollars a piece. Computer training centers have opened.

Even with battle videos, Ansar's site in Kurdish, Arabic and Farsi - the English page is still under construction - may find it difficult to compete for the attention of the mostly young Kurds who frequent Internet cafes here. Chat rooms are more popular.

The two main Kurdish parties also have extensive web sites.