Barzani Promises to Help And Iran Asks PUK To Leave Halabja 

(The Kurdistan Observer) Sep 30, 2001. A PUK delegation headed by Omar Fatah met the
KDP president Massoud Barzani in Salahdin, a source within the KDP told the Kurdistan
Observer yesterday.

According to the source, the PUK delegation discussed the latest conflict between the forces
of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Jund Al-Islam militants in the area of
Sharazur adding that the delegation has requested  logistical help in the fight against the
Islamic militants.

Having recently condemned the Jund Al-Islam for their terrorist actions in Kurdistan, Mr.
Barzani restated his commitments to the PUK delegation and declared his support to the
PUK in its war against the Jund Al-Islam terrorism organization.

Mr. Barzani will ask the KDP politbureau to convene to discuss the PUK request and to
consider sending KDP troops to join the PUK in the fight against the Jund Al-Islam
militants.  According to the KDP source, it is likely the KDP will send a symbolic force to
help the PUK forces.

In related news, a Kurdish source reported to the Kurdistan Observer that a high ranking
delegation form the Iranian government arrived in Sulaimaniya today. It added that the
delegation asked the PUK leadership once again to pull out its forces from Halabja and 
demanded to allow the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK) to resume its control of
Halabja and Hawraman areas. The PUK officials have not yet commented on the Iranian 
demands.

Last Sunday, fighting broke out between the forces of the PUK and the new fundamentalist
group, the Jund Al-Islam, near Tapa Drozna, a strategic location that overlooks the main
road between Sulaimaniya and Halabja.  As a result, 43 PUK fighters were killed. 
However, the PUK forces  repelled the Islamic militia forces form most of the areas it had
occupied.  In addition, the PUK forces took the town of Halabja, which has been under the
control of the Islamic Movement Of Kurdistan (IMK).

The Jund Al-Islam consists mainly of Arabs and Afghans who fought with Bin Laden
against the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan.  The Jund Al-Islam was formed when Abu
Abdellah al-Shafi'i defected from a mainstream Islamic Kurdish faction to join Bin Laden's
al-Qaeda to lead the Jund Al-Islam.

Members of al-Qaeda, said to have been dispatched by Bin Laden to Iraqi Kurdistan,
founded Jund al-Islam and the group has quickly emerged as a force to be reckoned with in
the region of Sulaimaniya in the region that borders with Iran.
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