- OSLO (AFP) - The suspected
leader of the Iraqi Kurdish Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Islam rejected
charges from US Secretary of State Colin Powell that the organisation offered
shelter in Iraq to al-Qaeda members in 2000.
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- "In 2000 an organisation did not even exist which
bore the name Ansar al-Islam," Mullah Krekar told a news conference
called after Powell made the accusations during his keenly awaited appearance
before the UN Security Council Wednesday.
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- "Ansar al-Islam was founded December 10, 2001,"
Krekar added.
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- Powell alleged that the Iraqi regime had employed an
agent from the Ansar al-Islam organisation, which controls an enclave in
Iraqi Kurdistan, who then offered shelter to al-Qaeda in the region.
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- But Krekar commented: "That is not true. Neither
Powell or anyone else can prove it. The proof is that he (Powell) did not
give the name (of the agent)."
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- Resident since 1991 in Norway, Krekar is the head of
a group accused by US and British media of being the key link between the
regime of Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaeda network, which is blamed for
the attacks of September 11, 2001.
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- The allegations have also been supported by rival Kurdish
organisations, such as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
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- However, Krekar has consistently denied any link with
Saddam Hussein, even saying that the Iraqi leader attempted to poison him
in 1990.
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- Krekar has described al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden as
a "ordinary Muslim", and disputed that the connection between
him and the September 11 attacks has ever been proved.
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- He has also denied the group controls any armaments factories
in the Kurdish controlled enclave, where he says "there is not a single
factory, not even a soap factory."
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- Krekar was arrested in the Netherlands last September,
spending several months in jail and interrogated by US Federal Bureau of
Investigation agents, before being finally released.
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- Holed up in the remote mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan on
the border with Iran, Ansar al-Islam, or "Supporters of Islam,"
is an extremist alliance of Muslim guerrillas including some who, according
to reports, fought in Afghanistan with links to al-Qaeda.
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