Up to 30 Kurds Killed in Battle with Islamic Militia
Reuters

Dec 4, 2002

ANKARA - Iraqi Kurd Islamist guerrillas said to be linked to al-Qaida killed as many as 30 Kurdish fighters in a dawn attack Wednesday on two peaks in the mountains of northern Iraq, a local official said.

A Patriotic Union of Kurdistan official told Reuters from the breakaway enclave that the party's forces were engaged in fierce fighting with Ansar al-Islam forces in the mountains north of the town of Halabja, close to the Iranian border.

"They attacked Girdi Drozni and Tapa Kora early this morning and they now control those hills," the official quoted the local PUK commander as saying. "We cannot give a precise number of peshmerga killed, but it might be as many as 30."

He said his peshmerga -- meaning those who face death -- were continuing to exchange motar and machinegun fire with the Ansar guerrillas, but he could not be sure of casualties on the other side.

The Kurds say Ansar has links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, blamed by Washington for the September 11 attacks. They say the 500-strong group includes some 50 Arabs who fled Afghanistan after last year's defeat of the Taliban.

North Iraq broke away from Baghdad rule at the end of the 1991 Gulf War and the PUK, together with the Kurdistan Democratic Party have ruled the rugged territory roughly the size of Switzerland ever since.

The shadowy Ansar group controls a slither of territory overlooking Halabja, made famous by a 1988 Iraqi government chemical attack on the town which killed some 5,000 people. They are surrounded on three sides by the PUK, with their backs against the Iranian border.

While party officials worry about fighting on two fronts if Washington attacks Baghdad, PUK leader Jalal Talabani has said he had rejected a U.S. offer to launch air strikes on the group.

Other Kurdish sources said Iran had objected to a U.S. attack so close to its border, but to prove its goodwill and disprove accusations it supported Ansar, the Islamic Republic deported the group's leader Mullah Krekar in September.

Talabani said last month Iran had agreed to help the PUK militarily to quash Ansar. Local observers say the PUK may be gearing up for a major assault on Ansar once negotiations with Iran are completed on the terms of their cooperation.