DECEMBER 2001 : (KREKAR LEAVES IMK & JOINS NEWLY ESTABLISHED JUND AL-ISLAM : THE TWO GROUPS WOULD FORM ANSAR AL ISLAM UNDER LEADERSHIP OF KREKAR) Following splits in the Islamic Movement in Kurdistan (IMK) movement last year [2001], Mala Krekar and his followers left IMK in December 2001 and joined the newly established Kurdish Islamic radical group, Jund al-Islam. The two groups formed Ansar al-Islam, with Mala Krekar as the groups leader. - "Ansar al-Islams leader arrested - Jordan asks his extradition," Iraqi Kurdistan Dispatch, news, 15 September 2002
DECEMBER 2001 : (WAR ON TERROR : BATTLE OF AFGHANISTAN : ABU SALEH KILLED IN US BOMBING? --- See MILAN CELL, ITALY) The Arab-language newspaper Al Hayat, published in London, reports that Abu Saleh had been killed "during the recent bombing of Najran in Afghanistan" by American forces. As far as is known, however, his body has never been recovered, and one Western diplomat half-joked that he might have joined "the al-Qaida equivalent of the witness-protection program." - "Milan cell linked to al-Qaida operatives, " By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune via Seattle Times June 30, 2002
2001 late : (BATTLE OF AFGHANISTAN : TALIBAN DEFEATED BY US : ZARQAWI FOLLOWERS FLEE AFGHANISTAN FOR CHECHNYA & VILLAGE OF SAGAT IN NORTHEASTERN IRAQ, IN SAGAT THEY EXPERIMENT WITH CHEMICALS SUCH AS RICIN & PLOTTED ATTACKS IN EUROPE) Investigators say the case offers a picture of how Al Qaeda sought to transform Ansar's Iraqi stronghold into a substitute, on a smaller scale, for the Afghan camps to which the terrorist network had sent aspiring holy warriors before the U.S. defeated the Taliban in late 2001.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, members of a network commanded by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a top Al Qaeda figure, fled to the Russian republic of Chechnya and northeastern Iraq. U.S. and European investigators say Zarqawi's specialists used a camp in the village of Sargat, near Kurmal, to experiment with cyanide poisons, toxic gas and ricin, a castor bean extract that can be used as a biological weapon.
The network allegedly plotted attacks in Europe that were assigned to different ethnic cells Algerians in Britain and France, Jordanians and Palestinians in Germany but were ultimately dismantled by police. - "Ansar al Islam's European connection : A Road to Ansar Began in Italy," By Sebastian Rotella, Times Staff Writer, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES , Second of two parts April 27, 2003, Times staff writer Jeffrey Fleishman, in northern Iraq, contributed to this report.
2001 LATE : (ITALY : US SAYS MAIN EUROPEAN AL QAEDA BASE IS IN A MILAN MOSQUE COMPLEX) Late last year [2001], U.S. officials said an Islamic cultural center and adjacent mosque in Milan were part of al Qaida's main base in Europe, something leaders of the mosque have denied. --- "Italy nabs eight new al Qaida suspects," Eric J. Lyman, UPI, 7/13/02