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In Iraq, US sees influence of Al Qaeda
Officials say 'foreign fighters' may be plotting attacks against US forces.
BAGHDAD
A car bomb in Baghdad last week killed 19 people - the deadliest single act of violence since the US occupation began 100 days ago. None of the victims was American, but the attack suggested that US forces may soon face a more sophisticated and unpredictable enemy than they have encountered so far.
In recent weeks and days, US military and civilian officials and some of their Iraqi supporters have said that "foreign fighters" and a largely Kurdish organization that the US believes has ties to Al Qaeda may be plotting attacks against US forces in Iraq.
The US battled Iraq's regime as part of its "war on terrorism," despite little evidence of any link between the former Iraqi government and those who attacked the US on Sept. 11, 2001. Now that US forces are occupying Iraq, the war on terrorism seems to be coming to them.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US ground forces in Iraq, told reporters last week that a connection between the foreign fighters and Al Qaeda was "clearly a possibility."
L. Paul Bremer, the top US civilian administrator here, has warned in recent days that Ansar al Islam, a primarily Kurdish group whose name translates to "partisans of Islam," may be preparing attacks against US targets. In late March, the US attacked Ansar al Islam's enclave in a part of northeastern Iraq administered by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
At the time, US and PUK officials claimed near-total success in eradicating the group, which had conducted terrorist assaults against Kurdish leaders in its attempt to bring an Islamist government to the area. Earlier this year, Kurdish officials estimated that Ansar al Islam had 700 fighters, including an unknown number from other countries in the Middle East.
The US hit the enclave with cruise missiles and bombs; US Special Forces coordinated a ground assault by PUK troops. The attack killed scores of Ansar al-Islam fighters, PUK officials said at the time. Those who escaped death or capture have apparently regrouped.
Following the trail
"According to information from our security apparatus, they have moved to other parts of Iraq, including Baghdad and Falujah," says a senior Kurdish official in Sulaymaniyah, which serves as the capital of the PUK region. Falujah has seen some of the most strenuous resistance to the US military presence in Iraq. Since President Bush declared the combat phase of the war over on May 1, 119 US service personnel have died in Iraq.
After the car bomb exploded Thursday in front of the embassy of Jordan, regarded as a US ally, US officials immediately fingered Ansar al Islam, albeit not definitively.
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