FOXNews.com Thursday, April 03, 2003
WASHINGTON � Evidence has been found in the Kurdish-controlled regions of northern Iraq that the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam was working on three types of chlorine gas and ricin and has ties to Al Qaeda, U.S. officials told Fox News.
Officials said that between 75 and 150 Al Qaeda members have been captured or killed in northern Iraq in recent days.
U.S. sources told Fox News that documents and equipment were found in the rubble of an Ansar facility that had been built into a cliff near Sargat. The material was described as "a cookbook and kitchen" for chemical weapons.
Other items included latex gloves, penicillin, a freezer and lab equipment. Sources said additional tests are planned.
Two suspected Al Qaeda members escaped into Iran but surrendered to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Iran has said it will hand over captured Ansar members. U.S. officials are waiting for them.
There were indications earlier that Ansar al-Islam was getting help from inside neighboring Iran.
Kurdish and Turkish intelligence officials said many of Ansar's 700 members have slipped out of Iraq and into Iran.
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Among the evidence found inside Ansar compounds were passports and identity papers of Ansar activists indicating that up to 150 of them were foreigners, including Yemenis, Turks, Palestinians, Pakistanis, Algerians and Iranians.
Coalition forces also found a phone book containing numbers of alleged Islamic activists based in the United States and Europe as well as the number of a Kuwaiti cleric and a letter from Yemen's minister of religion.
"What we've discovered in Biyare is a very sophisticated operation," said Barham Salih, prime minister of the Kurdish regional government.
Seized computer disks contained evidence showing meetings between Ansar and Al Qaeda activists, according to Mahdi Saeed Ali, a military commander.
WASHINGTON � Evidence has been found in the Kurdish-controlled regions of northern Iraq that the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam was working on three types of chlorine gas and ricin and has ties to Al Qaeda, U.S. officials told Fox News.
Officials said that between 75 and 150 Al Qaeda members have been captured or killed in northern Iraq in recent days.
U.S. sources told Fox News that documents and equipment were found in the rubble of an Ansar facility that had been built into a cliff near Sargat. The material was described as "a cookbook and kitchen" for chemical weapons.
Other items included latex gloves, penicillin, a freezer and lab equipment. Sources said additional tests are planned.
Two suspected Al Qaeda members escaped into Iran but surrendered to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Iran has said it will hand over captured Ansar members. U.S. officials are waiting for them.
There were indications earlier that Ansar al-Islam was getting help from inside neighboring Iran.
Kurdish and Turkish intelligence officials said many of Ansar's 700 members have slipped out of Iraq and into Iran.
>>
Among the evidence found inside Ansar compounds were passports and identity papers of Ansar activists indicating that up to 150 of them were foreigners, including Yemenis, Turks, Palestinians, Pakistanis, Algerians and Iranians.
Coalition forces also found a phone book containing numbers of alleged Islamic activists based in the United States and Europe as well as the number of a Kuwaiti cleric and a letter from Yemen's minister of religion.
"What we've discovered in Biyare is a very sophisticated operation," said Barham Salih, prime minister of the Kurdish regional government.
Seized computer disks contained evidence showing meetings between Ansar and Al Qaeda activists, according to Mahdi Saeed Ali, a military commander.
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