Kurdish Islamists arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/December/focusoniraq_December125.xml§ion=focusoniraq&col=

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Security forces in Iraq’s Kurdish region have arrested several followers of previously tolerated Islamist parties, accusing them of links to insurgents, officials said Sunday.

‘Those arrested are accused of links with Ansar Al Islam,’ said the autonomous region’s head of public security, Saif Al Din Ali Ahmed. He gave no more details and did not say how many arrests had been made.

A violent Islamist movement with alleged links to Al Qaeda, Ansar Al Islam has been attacked by US forces and is accused of taking part in the insurgency raging in Iraq. snip

‘Security forces of the Kurdistan region have started a campaign of arrests against supporters of the Islamist movements. They have arrested dozens of loyalists,’ he said.

The two parties targeted in the arrests are tolerated in Iraq and Al Jamaa Al Islamiya has stood in elections, returning one deputy to the national parliament and five to the Kurdish regional assembly.

[jody]

1. The Kurds have some semblance of security whereas Shia and Sunni areas are in chaos.

Leave the Kurds alone and let them resolve their problems their way.

[earlybelle]

2. And so the religious genocide continues. What hath Bush wrought?

We will all be reaping the whirlwind.