.Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Rev~e de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
Hilltop hideout in Iraq
could beearlyU.S.
target
CIA officers there say a mîlitant alliance -should be routed.
By Jonathan S. Landay ."It is America~sresponsibility produced gory combat videos. .
INQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU to eliminate them because it be- Music is banned, as are schools that
.
Iraman.
.
RevolutIOnary
SHINERWE . MOUNTAIN, gan a war on terrorism every- for girls. Men must wear beards G~ards could support Ansar
Iraq - The remote slopes and where after Sept. 11,"said Gen.and pray five times a day. Wom- With ~hell frre and close do~
valleys in front of Sarkawt Ab- Simko Dzayee the chief of staff en must cover themselves. Mer- KurdIsh trade over the Iraman
.
dullah's hilltop mortar pit could of the PUK militia. chants must l'ip female images border. .
become one of America's next Kurdish fighters have been off the wrappers of soap and. PUK of~icla!~.also say that
battlefields. unable to dislodge the Ansar. other goods. '. !WoIslamICmilitias sympathe.t-
CIA officers in Kurdish-con- militants tiéêause they lack CIAand Pentagon officials be- IC to Ansar control the l~w
trolled areas of northern Iraq enough heavy weapons, be- gan. planning an operation ground on the flanks of ~ts
have recommended that U.S. cause local politics complicates agamst Ansar some time ago, stronghol~, serve. as c?ndUlts
forces support an attack by ..' officials in Washington said. fo~. supplIes! and. prOVide the
the Patriotic Union of Kurdis- the situatiO~, ~d because t,he The officials declined to say mIlItants With fak~ Ip cards
tan, a group that seeks to oust rough ~erram IS strewn WIth whether President Bush had ap- that.allow them to slIp mto PUK
Iraqi President Saddam Hus- land mmes. ;.proved such an operation how- terrItory.
sein, on the 10~square-mileThe ~itants of ~sar are'ever, and an early attack'could Vasir Abdullah Sherif, a
mountain' bastion. of the mili- challengmg the authonty of the complicate U.S. efforts to mus- spokesman for one of the partant
Islamic organization An- PUK and other secular Kurdish ter support for an attack on ties, Komali Islami ("Islamic Sosar
al-Islam ("Partisans of Is- leaders by enforcing strict Tali- Iraq in the U.N. Security Coun- ciety"), denied that it supported
lam").
ban-styl.e Islamic rule in ~ re- cil and from reluctant Europe- Ansar and said it would remain
Kurdish offiCiaIs say dozens .. mote slIver of rugged terrItory an and Mideast allies. neutral. But he acknowledged
of Osama bin Laden's fugitive .that sits against the snow- Rooting out Ansar. could that "the terrain is such that we
followers, mostof th~m Arabs, . d~aped peaks of Iraq's border prove difficult. The group's are, intermixe~:' and that ~-
have found refuge With Ansar. : With Iran. .' . stronghold is home to 10000 ci- sar s fighters
In their' redoubt, a batred of' The militants have set up de- vilians in 17 villages and ham- this area."
move freely m
America shared by Hussein and
al-Qaeda intersects.
fenses and training camps and lets, and PUK officials worry Officials in Washington leave
.
'''l'hose people are from Tora
Bora," said' Abdullah, gesturing
at bunkers .on nearby ridges
arid recalling the mountain bastion
in Afghanistan from which
bin Laden and many of his loyalists
escaped a U.S.-led attack
just over a year ago.
PU~K officials said discussions
were under way with CIA
and U.S. military officers on a
possible coordinated assault on
an estimated 600 to 700 Kurdish
and Arab fighters. PUK military
and political officials said
U.S. special-operations forces
and aircraft armed with preci- .
sion-guided bombs could support
an assault by PUK fighters.
American operatives have
been seen surveying Ansar's
tiny stronghold from frontline
bunkers an9 trenches held by .
PUK fighters on ridgelines atop
Shinerwe Mountain, west of the
town of Halabja.
TOM PENNINGTON I Fort Worth Star- Telegrarn
~Kurdlsh fighter In Iraq makes his way along a frozen road to his frontline post along a Shinerwe Mountain ridge. Kurdish officials say .
.dQze"s offp!lowers of O~ama bin Lad~nhave.founc:j refuge nearby with a militant Islamic group. They want U.S.help in driving them out:
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