February 11, 2003
Al Queda moves in again in Iraq?
Kurdish Political Leader Killed in Iraq
Gunmen posing as defectors from an Islamic extremist group killed a political leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and two other Kurdish officials, a party commander said Sunday.
The commander blamed the Ansar al-Islam organization for the Saturday night attack on Gen. Shawkat Haji Mushir, a member of the political leadership of the party, which controls the eastern section of the Kurdish autonomous region of northeast Iraq.
Sheik Jaffar Mustafa, party military commander of the town of Halabja, said the three attackers also killed Hekmat Osman, security chief of the Sirwan district, and Sardar Qafoor, military commander of Sirwan district. Three civilians--a man, a woman and a child were also killed.
[...]
Ansar al-Islam, which the PUK says has ties to the al-Qaida network, was singled out by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell as a terrorist-linked organization during his appearance before the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.
Ansar al-Islam opposes the secular government of the Patriotic Union, which has been fighting for two years to drive the extremists from their mountain stronghold on the eastern edge of the Kurdish autonomous zone.
It would seem that this slaying is hauntingly like the murder of Akmed Shah Masood, the leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, by Al Queda/Taliban forces only a day or two before 9/11.
IOW, Al Queda's planning for something to "go down" and it won't be very nice: these Kurdish leaders that were killed were the best hope for democratic government and organized resistance to the Islamists and Al Queda members of Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq, which thanks to our "no fly zone" enforcement has managed to stay semi-independent of Saddam.
Al Queda-linked Islamists always seem keen to dispatch the leadership of any internal resistance who they think will be a threat when they're faced with a fight on their own turf, so all in all, I'd say that we're right to think Al Queda and Saddam are linked (and worse) and they know that we're coming for a fact.
Be afraid. Be very afraid, jihadi boys.
The U.S. military when they're riled are awesome!
Hat tip to the very fine warblog of Chip Joyce's About the War, which is also the newest addition to my blogroll!
Welcome aboard, soldier!
