Northern Iraq heats up, Baghdad threat feared 

Ankara - Turkish Daily News 
SAADET ORUC.  Sep 26, 2001 

While the United States and Britain step up military activity at Turkey's Incirlik air base, a
move regarded as preparations for a possible operation against Saddam Hussein, the
situation in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq is heating up as locals fear an imminent attack
from Baghdad. 

Iraq has already served notice in its daily Babil newspaper that it will "re-take" northern Iraq
from the Kurds if it is attacked by the Western powers. 

Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurdish leaders have set up a joint front to combat Islamic radicals in their
region, who are suspected of collaborating with Osama Bin Laden. 

The Turkish Daily News was told that Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
and Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party had agreed to fight
rising Islamic extremism in their region even before the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and
Washington. 

As a part of this campaign, Talabani's forces launched an all out attack and took over the
Halabjah city in northern Iraq, which was controlled by the militants of Jund-ul Islam on
Monday night, northern Iraqi officials said. 

Further remarks made by the northern Iraqi officials, on the other hand, confirmed the
activities of fundamentalist groups in the region, which had links with the Saudi terrorist bin
Laden. 

The fighting at the Bayara and Tawalla districts, at the southern parts of Halabja, which
erupted on Sept. 23, between Talabani and the fundamentalists in the region is still
continuing, sources stated. 

Talabani's taking Halabjah may cause a new tension between Iran and the Iraqi Kurds,
observers say. 

"Iran had mediated between the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK) and the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Tehran has been demanding the PUK not to have an eye on
Halabjah. Now, a crisis may explode between Tehran and the PUK," they commented. 

Jund-ul Islam and Osama bin Laden 

According to the sources briefing the TDN, Jund-ul Islam, the Arab-Afghan origin group,
was formed when three groups, Tevhid (which was responsible for the assassination against
the governor of Arbil, Francois Hariri in March 2001), Jihad-i Islami, which was active in
Halabja region and Soran Peshmerga Force united their forces. 

The total number of militants of Jund-ul Islam is nearly 300-400. 

The political message given by Jund-ul Islam was commented to be quite similar to the
policies of bin Laden, regional sources commented. 

The militants of these groups were trained in bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan and were
attacking women who were without headscarf and are also against shops selling alcoholic
drinks in northern Iraqi cities. 

Defining the leading two Iraqi Kurdish parties as infidel and secular groups, Jund-ul Islam
targets these parties as well, official sources stated. 

Iraq reported to be trying to destabilize the North 

Babil newspaper commented in a recent article that in case of a U.S. attack against Iraq,
Baghdad may attack the north to retake control of the Kurdish-administred region. 

"This is one of the options," says a northern Iraqi official. 

"Iraq is trying to destabilize the north," Iraqi Kurdish sources say. 

PUK & KDP work closely: Barzani sends envoy to Ankara 

The arising threat against the Iraqi Kurdish groups led to broad cooperation between the two
rival Kurdish parties. 

Before the clashes, sending an envoy to Talabani on Sept. 9, Massoud Barzani, the leader of
the KDP proposed cooperation, defining the acts of fundamentalists as a serious threat. 
Barzani's close aide Hoshyar Zebari was in Ankara on Tuesday and had a broad evaluation
at the Foreign Ministry. 

The main message of Barzani to Ankara was to increase cooperation on security, sources
said. 

Zebari had talks with officials from the Middle Eastern department of the Turkish Foreign
Ministry on the shifting regional balances in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Another KDP official was in Tehran to evaluate the political environment in the region,
while Zebari was meeting with Turkish officials in Ankara. 

Amid the thunder of the changing facts of northern Iraq, Turkey is reported to be getting
more involved in the region, as the Iraqi Kurds demand a broadening of cooperation in all
fields, especially concerning security matters. 
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