Cap can you post a link to the AFP article.
The article is in “Sify” which comes out of India apparently. The logo on the site suggests it is an AFP source:
“Sistani's office denies assassination attempt”
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13382345 The snippet about the two senior guys is toward the end of the article.
Here's an update from AFP on the Ansar al-Islam guy:
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=4698 "07/02/2004 AFP SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq, Feb 6 (AFP) - 15h23 - Kurdish security forces have arrested a suspected member of the Islamist extremist group Ansar al-Islam as he tried to flee Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, a political official said Friday."
"'Security forces from the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) arrested Warzar Ali Wali near Penjwin, while he tried to return to the Sunni regions,' said a PUK official on condition of anonymity."
"Close to the northern Iraq-Iran border, Penjwin is 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Suleimaniyah."
"The source said the man had not been arrested over Sunday’s twin suicide bombings in the Kurdish town of Arbil that targeted the offices of the PUK and its rival Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), killing at least 105 people."
"Ansar al-Islam, which controlled an enclave of northeast Iraq before being crushed by US forces at the end of March, is suspected of links to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. "
"The little-known Ansar al-Sunna group claimed responsibility for the attack in Arbil, while expressing sympathies with the "brothers" of Ansar al-Islam."