Operations After The 2003 Invasion of Iraq
US Special Activities Division (SAD) Paramilitary teams entered Iraq before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. SAD teams then combined with US Army Special Forces and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Peshmerga to defeat Ansar al-Islam. This battle was for territory along the Iranian border that was controlled by Ansar al-Islam, and was executed prior to the invasion in February 2003. The US side was carried out by Paramilitary Officers from SAD and the Army's 10th Special Forces Group. It resulted in the deaths of a substantial number of militants and the uncovering of a chemical weapons facility at Sargat. Sargat was the only facility of its type discovered in Iraq.
Ansar al-Islam detonated a suicide car bomb on March 22, 2003, killing Australian journalist Paul Moran and several others. The group is also thought to have been responsible for a September 9, 2003 attempted bombing of a United States Department of Defense office in Arbil, which killed three people.
On February 1, 2004 suicide bombings hit parallel EID-celebrations arranged by the two main Kurdish parties, PUK and Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq (KDP), in the Kurdish capital of Arbil, killing 109 and wounding more than 200 partygoers. Responsibility for this attack was claimed by the then unknown group Ansar al-Sunnah, and stated to be in support of "our brothers in Ansar al-Islam."
While many former activists in Ansar al-Islam have joined the Ansar al-Sunnah and similar groups, Kurdish authorities claim the organization is still active in Iraqi Kurdistan. In September 2006, 11 alleged members of Ansar al-Islam were hanged in Arbil.
Ansar al-Islam has an extensive network in Europe organizing finance and support for armed attacks within Iraq. Several members of such groups have been arrested in European countries such as Germany and Sweden.
In December 2007 the Ansar al-Sunnah formally acknowledged being derived from the Ansar al-Islam, and reverted their name to the original.
In November 2008 an archbishop in Mosul received a threat signed by the "ansar al-islam brigades", warning all Christians to leave Iraq or else be killed.
On May 4, 2010 Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i, Ansar al-Islam's leader since Mullah Krekar left for Norway in 2003, was captured by US forces in Baghdad.
Read more about this topic: Ansar Al-Islam
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