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Interesting find on ItsHappening:

Norway's link to Iraq suicide attacks
23 Jan 2004

Author: By Gorill Husby

OSLO - Investigations into several suicide bombings in Iraq now center on a man held in detention in Norway.

Mullah Krekar, founder of the radical Kurdish Islamist group Ansar-al-Islam, was ordered to be held in custody by an appeals court in Oslo last week. The refugee-turned-guerrilla leader from Jordan will remain behind bars for another four weeks pending further investigation. Krekar has been detained over investigations into suicide bombings in northern Iraq and the murder of a rival Kurdish leader in the spring of 2002.

Krekar was arrested in Norway on January 2. A court in Oslo ruled three days later there was not enough evidence to keep him in jail, much to the dismay of the United States. But he has been kept in custody after an order from an appeals court, which ruled that it was probable that Krekar "has had and still has a central position in Ansar-al-Islam" and that he "still wields considerable influence on the activity of the organization".

Police investigators are connecting the mullah to suicide bombings after tracing his activity on the Internet. The police say e-mails he sent contained coded messages to terror groups around the world. Krekar was also said to have justified suicide bombings as a form of jihad, or holy war.

US Attorney General John Ashcroft made an unprecedented visit to Oslo last September. He spoke then of Ansar-al-Islam as a "very dangerous group" that had set up a network of terrorist training camps in northern Iraq. "He was very interested in Krekar," Norwegian Foreign Secretary Jan Petersen said after his meeting with Ashcroft.

Krekar's arrest early this month coincides with an effort by European intelligence agencies to locate Ansar-al-Islam terrorist cells, intelligence sources say. Krekar has claimed that he has not led Ansar-al-Islam since May 2002. But authorities in Norway say he has continued to be active both as the spiritual and actual leader of the group, and that he has been organizing suicide attacks in northern Iraq.

Today, the bearded cleric denies any links with the group regarded as a terrorist organization by the US and the United Nations, saying he has been living a quiet life with his wife and children in an apartment in Oslo.

(Inter Press Service)

You don't think that was EOM do you ?

Adding on to post no. 1105...

JIHAD WATCH.org (TELEGRAPH.co.uk): "ISLAMIC EXILE ORDERED BOMBINGS FROM OSLO, CLAIMS CIA" (January 19, 2004) (Read More...)

AFTENPOSTEN.no (English) - News From Norway: "COURT ORDERS KREKAR HELD IN JAIL" (January 13, 2004) (Read More...)

AFTENPOSTEN.no - Search Term: "KREKAR" (Mullah Krekar) (Read More...)