| Iraqi Kurdistan conflict | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theIraqi no-fly zones conflict,Iraq War,Islamism in Kurdistan, and thewar on terror | |||||||
 Iraqi Kurdistan in 2003 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
Supported by:  Iran (alleged by PUK)[4] KDP (alleged by PUK)[4] |
| ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Mullah Krekar MullahAli BapirAbu Abdullah al-Shafi'i |  Jalal Talabani Tommy Franks | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 700–1,000 fighters[5][3] | 70,000 PUK[6] ~40U.S. Special Forces[7] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 200+ killed[8][9][10] | Unknown, at least 45 killed and 93 wounded | ||||||
From 2001 to 2003, a military conflict took place inIraqi Kurdistan between theKurdistan Region and theIslamic Emirate of Kurdistan. The conflict began in 2001 over the governance of Iraqi Kurdistan. In the first battle of the2003 invasion of Iraq,Operation Viking Hammer was launched, and the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan dissolved. After the offensive, most officials of the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan were exiled to Iran.Ansar al-Islam moved southward to participate in theIraqi insurgency and, after it was quelled, theSyrian civil war.
Ansar al-Islam was formed in September 2001 whenJund al-Islam merged with a splinter group from the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan, under the leadership ofMullah Krekar.[11] According to thePatriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the group consisted of Kurdish veterans of jihad who had gone toAfghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban against theSoviet invasion in the 1980s. They returned toKurdistan after the defeat of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in 2001.[11] Ansar al-Islam imposedSharia in the villages they controlled around Byara, close to the border withIran.
Human Rights Watch has accusedAnsar al-Islam of committing atrocities against the civilian population in the territory they controlled. It has been alleged that Ansar al-Islam harshly persecuted theYarsan religious minority and enforced strict Islamic law. Human Rights Watch also accused Ansar al-Islam fighters of torturing prisoners and summarily executing captured PUK soldiers.[11] After theBattle of Kheli Hama, Ansar al-Islam was again accused of beheading and mutilating captured PUK prisoners.[12]
After two unsuccessful assassination attempts onFranso Hariri by Ansar al-Islam inErbil in 1994 and 1997, a third attempt in 2001 succeeded. It happened on the exact same street as the previous two attempts.[13][14]
An unsuccessful attempt was made on the life ofBarham Salih in April 2002 by Ansar al-Islam. At the time, Saleh was the PUK's Regional Government Prime Minister.[15] Later, in February 2003, Ansar al-Islam assassinated the prominent PUK commander Shawkat Haji Mushir, along with five other people.[16]
In March 2004, the US State Department officially classified Ansar al-Islam as a terrorist organization.[17]
During the2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. forces aided the PUK in attacking Ansar al-Islam. In late March 2003, PUK forces, supported by American special forces, captured Halabja after several days of heavy fighting. The surviving Ansar al-Islam forces fled to Iran.
American intelligence personnel inspected the suspected chemical weapons site in Sargat and discovered traces ofricin in the ruins, as well aspotassium chloride. They also discovered chemical weapons suits,atropine nerve gas antidotes, and manuals on manufacturing chemical weapons, lending credence to the idea that the site was related to the manufacture of chemical weapons and poisons.[18]: 320–321
After their defeat in Iraqi Kurdistan, Ansar al-Islam joined theIraqi insurgency. Several terrorist attacks in theErbil area have been linked to Ansar al-Islam, including theassassination of Franso Hariri and thesuicide bombing of the PUK and KDP headquarters in Erbil that killed 117 people. They also carried out the bombing of the Mount Lebanon Hotel in Baghdad on March 17, 2004.[17]
