Associated Press

March 22, 2003 Saturday

LENGTH: 868 words

HEADLINE: Report: American forces attack Islamic militants

BYLINE: BORZOU DARAGAHI; Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq

BODY:
The United States fired five missiles at the base of an al-Qaida linked group in the mountains of northeastern Iraq, Kurdish political and military officials said, combining its war against Saddam Hussein with its fight against alleged terrorists.

A high-level official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said a ground offensive against Ansar al Islam, utilizing Kurdish forces, was being prepared and could start hours after the air strikes. A Kurdish military official, also refusing to be named, confirmed the report.

U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks confirmed U.S. missile attacks on a camp of the al-Qaida-linked militant group Ansar al-Islam, in northern Iraq Friday night. Kurdish officials in the region said at least 100 people died in the bombardment.

Ansar al-Islam, a militant Islamic group with 700 hardcore members and alleged ties to both al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein's government, has said it has been involved in killing dozens or Kurdish officials or soldiers over since it became active in the Fall of 2001.

Civilians have often died or been wounded in Ansar's suicide bombings, ambushes and assassinations, centered around the 18 villages it controls near the city of Halabja next to the Iranian border.

The attack on Ansar, which occurred shortly before midnight Friday local time, comes as the U.S. prepares to step up a northern front against Saddam's government to take control of the oil-rich cities of Kirkuk and Mosul .

Many Kurdish officials have feared Ansar could disrupt any American presence here. Several weeks ago, Kurdish counterterrorism officials spotted carcounts of alleged Ansar militants near sites said to be visited by the U.S. clandestine operatives active in the autonomous Kurdish north of Iraq .

Kurds say Ansar's strategic Biyare stronghold in the mountains, with sympathetic Islamic groups on each side, the Zagros Mountains to the rear and a narrow, heavily guarded pass in the front made a ground assault unfeasible without air support.

Kurdish officials have often accused Ansar of harboring Afghan-trained members of al-Qaida.

"Terrorism is an international problem," said Barham Salih, prime minister of the Patriotic Union-controlled section of northern Iraq . "We need international help in combating Ansar."

In a February address to the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell alleged that Ansar was the missing link tying al-Qaida to Saddam's regime.

On Friday, Kurdish Peshmerga militia fighters and heavily armed Special Forces poured into the area near Halabja.

"They are very intelligent," Bafel Talabani, a Kurdish counterterrorism official, told The Associated Press. "Their explosives devices are very professional. They have good equipment. Their operations are very well done."

Despite the allegations against Ansar, many in the Patriotic Union have recently acknowledged they may have played a role in allowing to set up in the area.

In a press conference last month, Patriotic Union leader Jalal Talabani said that he made a mistake in allowing a predecessor group to Ansar relocate to Biyare after the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the western half of the autonomous Kurdish zone kicked it out.

The International Crisis Group, a Belgium-based think tank, said in a Feb. 7 report that Ansar is a local group with questionable ties to international terrorism. "Having lost a number of its fighters in clashes with Ansar al-Islam, it is not surprising that the PUK has sought to emphasize the group's putative terrorist connections," the report said.

But, the report adds, "There is no hard evidence to suggest that Ansar al-Islam is more than a minor irritant in local Kurdish politics."

Mostafa Said Qader, the top Kurdish military commnader in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah :

At 12:30 am, the United States launched 40 Tomahawk cruise missles at the villages of Qhormal, Biyare and Sargat. Sargat was the site of what U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called a terrorist poison and explosives training center and a deadly link in a "sinister nexus" binding Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.

Qader said the rockets came from the Red Sea .

He said that 8 a.m. this morning launched two more missiles at the Ansar al Islam center.

"The missiles hit their targets. There are many killed and injured, but we cannot say exactly how many. According to our information, it is more than 100. He said that some of the corpses were taken to Halabja and others were taken to Iran ."

He said that 120 families affiliated with the Ansar group as well as another group with similar Islamic fundamentalist views were hit.

"There will be further bombardments,"

Local authorities warned the members of the group to leave before the attacks.

"We are very happy to get rid of these terrorists," Qader said. "We have tried a lot to get them to abandon their terrorist acts....They caused instability in our country and their destrictuion is a cause for happinesss."

Meanwhile, hundreds of refugees started to flee the area on foot and by tractor down the narrow dirt country roads. Walking from Qormal to Sadid Saddiq. Carrying clothes on their backs, food and few supplies.