Islamist and Kurdish Factions Battle in Iraq

VOA News
3 Oct 2001 17:54 UTC

More fighting is reported in northern Iraq between a radical Islamist group and an Iraqi
Kurdish faction - the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. 

A PUK spokesman says clashes erupted Tuesday evening with Jund al-Islam - the "Soldiers
of Islam" - in the mountainous Shinirwe area between the town of Halabja and the Iranian
border, and in Bazinja in the Sharazoor plain. He says the PUK cleared the Jund al-Islam
from one area and captured 17 members of the group in the other.

The clashes came shortly after a frequent rival of the Patriotic Union - the Kurdistan
Democratic Party - promised financial, material and, if necessary, military help to the PUK
in the fight against the extremist Muslim group. 

Last week, Jund al-Islam ambushed a PUK force near Halabja. The Patriotic Union says 37
of its fighters were killed in that attack. It says Jund al-Islam beheaded or otherwise
mutilated some of the bodies. 

The Patriotic Union links the Jund al-Islam to Osama bin Laden and says some of its fighters
were trained at camps in Afghanistan. Turkish authorities who are monitoring the situation
say they have found little evidence to support such claims. 
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