Al-Qaeda Kurdish Battalions

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (January 2012)

al-Qaeda Kurdish Battalions
Dates of operation	2007 - present
Active region(s)	Iran, Iraqi Kurdistan
Ideology	Islamism, strict Sharia Law
Status	Designated as Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department

Al-Qaeda Kurdish Battalions (AQKB) is a militant Islamist organization, primarily active in the northern Iran-Iraq boarder. It is a Kurdish-affiliated branch of Al-Qaeda that has lunched several attacks the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq. The group is was classified as a terrorist organization by the US State Department on January 1, 2012.^[1]

Formation

AQKB was founded in 2007 after the disbandment of Ansar al-Islam, another Al-Qaeda affiliated group. The group is considered to be relatively small but has camps in the Iranian towns of Mariwan and Sanandej.^[2]

Attacks

The group has lunched several attacks including its largest one being against KRG's Ministry of Interior in Erbil that killed 19 people in May 2007.^[2] AQKB killed 7 border guards and one PUK security officer in Penjwan in July 2007. ^[3] In September 2010, two police officers were hurt by a failed suicide attack in Sulaymaniyah.^[3]

References

1. ^ "Topic Galleries". chicagotribune.com. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-iraq-usagroup--update-1l1e8c52to-20120105,0,4888655.story. Retrieved 2012-01-29. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Rudaw in English The Happening: Latest News and Multimedia about Kurdistan, Iraq and the World - US Designates Kurdish Group Terrorists". Rudaw.net. 2012-01-15. http://www.rudaw.net/english/world/4306.html. Retrieved 2012-01-29. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Terrorist Designation of the Al-Qaida Kurdish Battalions". Aina.org. 2012-01-05. http://www.aina.org/news/20120105102642.htm. Retrieved 2012-01-29.