Mullah Krekar revealed his true self this week. Not Krekar the Grandfatherly Idealist, the sympathetic character he's been playing (with success) on Norwegain TV for six months now, but Krekar the Religious Extremist: just another Muslim guerilla leader with a taste for suicide, and a deep hatred for the US. In an interview on Dutch television, he foolishly threatened the US with suicide attacks from Ansar al-Islam, if American forces try to enter northern Iraq.

We have now the young people who kill themselves. Yes, suicide bombers. We have these, more important and more dangerous than Hamas and Jihad Islam use in Palestine. [..] We believe it's America's war against Islam. [..] Let them come. Now they bring more than 300,000 (troops). We believe our God - Allah - will be with us.

That doesn't sound like the Krekar we've all learned to know and love, now does it? The Krekar I know is a peaceful political leader, a real humanitarian. The stories about him, they're lies and slander, all of them. Obviously, then, he must have misspoken, been misquoted or mistranslated. Or that's his lawyer's story, anyway:

Krekar has not said this. If Reuter reported this, Krekar has been misquoted. Krekar was speaking about Afghanistan in the interview and said in that connection that Ansar al-Islam could have carried out such (suicide) actions if they had wished. [..] When he (Krekar) says "we" he means the Islamic world, and not necessarily Ansar al-Islam.

They can if they wish, and they already have: Ansar al-Islam carried out what may have been their first suicide attack against their Kurdish enemies almost a month ago.

Krekar had already been charged by the Norwegian government with kidnapping, and with violating his refugee status. Following these threats of suicide terrorism he's now been arrested, and the charges extended to include planning of terrorist acts, and financially aiding a terrorist organization. (Krekar resisted the arrest, and his trigger-happy lawyer has filed charges against the police for use of excessive violence.)

It might seem odd that the police would have Krekar arrested, when after all the government would like nothing more than to see him out of the country, but as long as he's here, I'd rather he's under arrest than walking around freely.

In any case, my current dream Krekar-scenario, (following his now unrealistic forced return to northern Iraq, just in time for an American cruise missile attack), is now a trial for war crimes and terrorism in post-Saddam Iraq. I'm not sure the Norwegian government will go for that, but one's allowed to hope. Having him arrested, and not sent out of the country for a while, at least makes that scenario somewhat more likely.

(Btw, a recent report from the Norwegian military, which sums up publicly available information on Iraq's relationship with terrorism, including speculation on links between Iraq, Ansar al-Islam and al-Qaida, repeatedly references blogger Fred Pruitt's overview of terrorist organizations. The report concludes that terrorist activity will likely increase after a war, but that there might be an overall positive effect if a stable democracy can be built in Iraq, thus removing Iraqi suffering as a constant source of motivation for Islamic terrorists. It's a very interesting read - too bad it's in Norwegian.)

Hey, we'll take anything we can get.

We also sent 40 missiles to ansar in northern Iraq. 3 went off target and landed in Iran hit something in an oil refinery. Guess we'll have to keep working on our tech.

It's not perfected yet. Or is it?

According to the NY Times, those 40-50 cruise missiles were targeted at elements of Krekar's Ansar al Islam.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10012-2003Mar22.html

A suicide bomber (one of the folks that Krekar was talking about, I guess) succeeded in killing an Australian journalist and a couple PUK soldiers. This was reported in the Washington Post, among other places.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9781-2003Mar22.html

I'm glad to see that the Norwegian authorities have detained Krekar.

- Gill

I don't know what to make of this. Dagbladet reports that American cruise missiles struck the wrong targets."According to representatives of Kurdistan's Patriotic Front," says Dagbladet, "bases of the moderate group Komala Islami Kurdistans in the town Khormal was struck in the attacks Friday night when the targets were supposed to have been Islamic extremists."

http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2003/03/22/364665.html

But the PUK itself, on its official web page, says, "US cruise missiles strike Al-Qaeda affiliates in Kurdistan

Tonight at midnight (Kurdistan Time) 21-3-03, US cruise missiles bombarded the bases of Al-Qaeda affiliate – Ansar Al-Islam. At least 30 cruise missiles struck bases in Biyara and Tawela. The attacks are targeted at the group’s headquarters.

The news was met with delight and joy within the streets of Kurdistan."

http://www.puk.org/web/htm/news/nws/22mar03uschtml.htm

NRK reports both attacks:

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/utenriks/irak_konflikten/2632614.html

The moderate Komala group is apparently the gang that Powell accused of manufacturing chemical weapons. I hope that we (the U.S.) got this right.

Here are some more links - and yeah, it seems like they struck the bases of both Ansar and this Komala-group I haven't heard about before.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=14824&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2877319.stm

Trackback URL: http://bearstrong.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/109