[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

These are some truly Bad Guys.

They were exploring the use of weapons other than explosive types, when we and the Kurdish fighters sent them packing from NorthEastern Iraq.

[GarySpFc]

Ansar al-Islam fighters in Iraq, believed to number about 700, scattered by U.S. invasion. U.S. officials say some regrouped and linked up with Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for attacks.

Correction. al-Zarqawi joined up with Ansar al-Islam long before the U.S.invasion.

[SecondAndLong]

This Ansar Alsunnah site seems to be Jewish !!!!!

http://www.ansaralsunnah.com/

Could the Mossad be working under cover in Iraq ???

[okie01]

Dammit! If AP is going to produce little FYI capsules like this, they should at least "get it right".

Area was beyond Saddam Hussein's control thanks to Western-enforced no-fly zones.

The suggestion being that Hussein and Ansar al-Islam were antithetical to one another. However, Hussein was supporting the group and they cooperated with him by attacking the Kurds. See The Great Terror, by Jeffrey Goldberg, for the New Yorker.

U.S. officials say some regrouped and linked up with Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for attacks.

When Zarqawi escaped Afghanistan, he went to Iraq and joined up with Ansar al-Islam -- in December, 2001!

Don't AP researchers have the knowledge (or gumption) to use Google? Or come to Free Republic and let us do their research for them?

[genefromjersey]

BIG lie !

Ansar al Islam was funded by Saddam Hussein-not "operating beyond his control" !!