US Bombs Non-Saddam-Aligned Iraqi Islamist Resistance
I mentioned I thought it was likely that the US would begin eliminating many in-country anti-Saddam forces of any significance, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon. A local Kurdish group called in the airstrike on their Islamist foes:
The PUK, which is coordinating with U.S. intelligence officials in northern Iraq, blames the group — which has several hundred mainly Kurdish fighters — of directing a string of attacks on its officials, including an attempt on the life of its prime minister. The clash comes as U.S.-led forces bombard Baghdad and cities near the fringe of Kurdish-held territory. PUK officials have indicated the early stages of the war would be a likely time to move against the group.
American forces bombed the militant Islam organization Ansar al-Islam in the mountains of northern Iraq Friday night … In the broad, grassy Halabja plain below troops from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan had been massing for an attack. The Kurds had been saying that they were promised an American airstrike for a long time … “This is a region outside Baghdad’s control and we see no evidence that Ansar has a strategic alliance with Saddam Hussein,” Robert Malley, director of the International Crisis Group’s Middle East program, said in a recent report on the group.
Earlier here.
You produce an expert who says there is a connection. I produce an expert who says there is no connection. I find that Baram’s links to the “U.S. Institute of Peace” and “The Washington Institute”, and the fact that his brother was killed fighting Arabs in 1973 make me suspect his motives for declaring that the targets of US/UK bombing “had it coming” because of their “links” to Hussein. This in spite of the fact that Hussein has always opposed Islamist factions within Iraq.
Baram had extremely close links to the Clinton regime and seems to have ingratiated himself with the Bush Gang as well.