Posted on 02/04/2004 11:59:58 PM PST by serurier
Suicide bombers attacked the offices of Kurdistan's two main political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (KDP), in Arbil Sunday.
Kurdistan Television said late Wednesday that a taxi driver in Kirkuk, 50 miles south of Arbil, had contacted police there after recognizing a picture issued by the KDP of a man it said was one of the suicide bombers.
The driver said he had driven the man from Al-Zahra hotel in Kirkuk to the Arbil transport terminal early Sunday morning.
Security forces later raided the hotel and detained an Arab man with a Yemeni passport who had a large quantity of explosives in his possession, the television said. There was no immediate confirmation from Kirkuk police.
U.S. military officials have said the tactics used in the Arbil bombings point to the involvement of foreign insurgents, though they stressed investigations were at an early stage.
An Islamic Web Site posted a claim of responsibility for the attacks, timed to coincide with the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, purportedly from a group called the Army of Ansar al-Sunna, dated February 4.
"Two of our martyrs, may God accept them, raided two dens of the devils in the city of Arbil in north Iraq, and with this, our happiness over Eid al-Adha merged with our happiness in striking the allies of Jews and Christians," the statement said.
It condemned the KDP and PUK for backing the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and advised Muslims to keep away from places used by the two parties.
There was no independent confirmation of the authenticity of the statement, which was carried by a Web Site which has previously carried statements it said were from the Taliban. The statement was signed off with the name Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud, as the group's leader.
Kurdish and U.S. officials have said militant groups Ansar al-Islam or al Qaeda may be connected with the Arbil attacks.
Ansar al-Islam, whose leadership is believed to be Kurdish, is an Islamist group which the PUK accuses of links to al Qaeda. The group's stronghold in northern Iraq was bombed by U.S. forces during the war.
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