| Battle of Kheli Hama | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Islamist insurgency in Iraqi Kurdistan | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 PUK Supported by:  United States |  Ansar al-Islam | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Jalal Talabani | Mullah Krekar | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 42 | 15 | ||||||
The Battle of Kheli Hama was an ambush on the PUK by Ansar al-Islam in the village of Kheli Hama in the Halabja Governorate. It took place 13 days after the September 11 attacks, although there was no connection between them.
The attack happened at 3:00 in the afternoon. Ansar al-Islam fighters launched a surprise attack from 3 sides against the PUK forces stationed in the village. Because the PUK forces were off guard and not expecting any attacks by Ansar al-Islam, the Ansar fighters dealt one of their deadliest blows. The PUK were pushed out and the village of Kheli Hama briefly fell under Ansar control. After 24 hours of Ansar al-Islam occupying the village as part of their Islamic Emirate of Byara, the PUK returned with more soldiers, backup soldiers, and United States support, and took the village back. [1] [2] A total of 15 Ansar al-Islam fighters and 42 PUK fighters were killed, and an additional 8 PUK held captive by Ansar al-Islam. [3]
In 2018, a monument dedicated to the PUK soldiers who died in the attack was built in Sharazoor, close to Kheli Hama. In February 2021, a local Kurdish man from Sharazoor was arrested by the Asayish for writing Ansar al-Islam graffiti on the wall of the monument. During the interrogation, he pleaded guilty instantly. [4] Soran Omar would later go on trial for his alleged involvement. [5] [6]
Ansar al-Islam in Kurdistan, simply called Ansar al-Islam, is a Kurdish Islamist militant and separatist group. It was established in northern Iraq around the Kurdistan Region by Kurdish Islamists who were former Taliban and former Al-Qaeda volunteers, which were coming back from Afghanistan in 2001 after the Fall of Kabul. Its motive is to establish an Islamic state around the Kurdistan region and to protect Kurdish people from other armed insurgent groups. It imposed strict Sharia in villages it controlled around Byara near the Iranian border.
Jamaat Ansar al-Sunnah, also known as Jaish Ansar al-Sunna, Ali ibn Abi Talib Battalion or simply as Ansar al-Sunnah was an Iraqi Sunni insurgent group that fought against US troops and their local allies during the Iraq War. The group was primarily based in northern and central Iraq, and included mostly Iraqi fighters. In 2007, it split; with its Kurdish members pledging allegiance to Ansar al-Islam, and its Arab members creating a group called Ansar al-Sunnah Shariah Committee, before changing its name to Ansar al-Ahlu Sunnah in 2011.
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The Kurdistan Islamic Movement is a Kurdish Islamist party founded in 1987 by Osman Abdulaziz and several other Kurdish Islamic scholars who were all part of the non-political "Union of Religious Scholars" group. The party's main support comes from in and around the town of Halabja. Osman Abdulaziz was appointed as a mufti by the Kurdistan Islamic Movement.
Operation Viking Hammer was an unconventional warfare operation during the Iraq War which took place in northern Iraq, commonly known as Iraqi Kurdistan. The goal of the operation was to eliminate Ansar al-Islam and dismantle the Islamic Emirate of Byara. Ansar al-Islam was established by former Al-Qaeda members in 2001 as a Kurdish Salafist movement that imposed a strict application of Sharia in villages it controlled.
The Iraqi Kurdish Civil War was a civil war that took place between rival Kurdish factions in Iraqi Kurdistan during the mid-1990s, mostly between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Over the course of the conflict, Kurdish factions from Iran and Turkey, as well as Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish forces, were drawn into the fighting, with additional involvement from American forces. Between 35,000 and 40,000 fighters and civilians were killed.
From 2001 to 2003, there was a military conflict in Iraqi Kurdistan between the Islamist militant group Ansar al-Islam and its allies against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The conflict began in 2001 as an insurgency, but subsequently merged with the larger 2003 invasion of Iraq after Operation Viking Hammer. After the invasion, Ansar al-Islam moved southwards to participate in the Iraqi insurgency and, after it was quelled, the Syrian civil war.
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Soran Mama Hama was a reporter for Lvin magazine in Kirkuk, Iraq. He was shot by unidentified gunmen and died in Kirkuk at approximately 9 p.m. on July 21, 2008, in the suburban Kirkuk neighborhood of Shorija. Hama's death remains unsolved. It is believed that he was the victim of corrupt police and government personnel, which he had previously reported on.
The Peshmerga have historically been Kurdish guerrilla forces combating the ruling power in the region of what is now Iraqi Kurdistan. Under Mahmud Barzanji, the Peshmerga fought against the British Empire after World War I. They also spearheaded revolts against the Iraqi government in 1931–1932 and against Iran in 1946–1947. Under the leadership of Mustafa Barzani, Peshmerga forces fought the Iraqi government in the First and Second Iraqi–Kurdish Wars of the 1960s and 1970s, and supported Iran in the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s. The Peshmerga became divided between forces loyal to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and those loyal to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a split that led to the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War of 1995–1998. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Peshmerga became the official military forces of the Kurdistan Region, ruled by a KDP-PUK coalition. The Peshmerga have played an important role in re-taking territory occupied by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The 2005 Erbil bombing was a suicide attack on the offices of Kurdish political parties in Erbil, Kurdistan Region, on May 4, 2005. The attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body as people lined up outside a police recruiting center in Erbil. Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility. This attack is an example of religious terrorism, groups who commit terrorist acts because of religion believe that their deity or deities are on their side and that their violence is divinely inspired and approved. This attack is also an example of Strategic terrorism. Which is a form of terrorism where the terrorist plans to inflict mass casualties. The goals of Strategic terrorism are normally not local objectives but global objectives or regional objectives. Ansar al-Sunna's goal is to transform the country of Iraq into an Islamic state so their goals are regional.
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