| Battle of Kheli Hama | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Islamist insurgency in Iraqi Kurdistan | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
Supported by: United States | |||||||
| 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 Kurdistan, 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, was 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. It was formed with the motive of establishing an Islamic state around the Kurdistan region and protecting Kurds from other armed insurgent groups during the Iraqi insurgency. It imposed strict Sharia in villages it controlled around Byara near the Iranian border.
Halabja is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the capital of Halabja Governorate, located about 240 km (150 mi) northeast of Baghdad and 14 km (9 mi) from 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.
The Anfal campaign was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988 during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rural Kurds because its purpose was to eliminate Kurdish rebel groups and Arabize strategic parts of the Kirkuk Governorate. The Ba'athist regime committed atrocities on the local Kurdish population, mostly civilians.
The Peshmerga are the internal security forces of Kurdistan Region. According to the Constitution of Iraq, regional governments are responsible for "the establishment and organization of the internal security forces for the region such as police, security forces, and guards of the region". Other Kurdish security agencies include the Zêrevanî (gendarmerie), Asayish, and the Parastin û Zanyarî. The Peshmerga's history dates back to the 18th century, when they began as a tribal paramilitary border guard under the Ottoman Turks and the Safavid kurds. By the 19th century, they had evolved into a disciplined and well-trained guerrilla force.
The Kurdistan Islamic Movement is a Kurdish Islamist party founded in 1987 by mufti 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.
Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous federal region of the Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurdish-majority governorates of Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Duhok Governorate, and Halabja Governorate. It is located in northern Iraq, which shares borders with Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, and Syria to the west.
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 Kurdistan. 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 Kurdistan Region and the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan. The conflict began in 2001 as a conflict over governance of Iraqi Kurdistan. In the first battle of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Operation Viking Hammer was launched, and the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan dissolved. After the offensive, most of the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan officials were exiled to Iran. Ansar al-Islam moved southwards to participate in the Iraqi insurgency and, after it was quelled, the Syrian civil war.
The Iraqi–Kurdish conflict consists of a series of wars, rebellions and disputes between the Kurds and the central authority of Iraq starting in the 20th century shortly after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Some put the marking point of the conflict beginning to the attempt by Mahmud Barzanji to establish an independent Kingdom of Kurdistan, while others relate to the conflict as only the post-1961 insurrection by the Barzanis.
Soran Mama Hama was an Iraqi journalist. He worked for the Lvin magazine in Kirkuk, Iraq, and was gunned down by unidentified gunmen 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 powers in the region of what is now Iraqi Kurdistan. The term "Peshmerga" refers to those who face death, and the forces have long been an essential element in the Kurdish fight for autonomy and recognition.
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.
Soran Omar Saeed Ahmed is an Iraqi Kurdish politician of the Kurdistan Justice Group. He was born in Qaradagh, Sulaymaniyah Governorate. He currently serves as an MP in the Iraqi Council of Representatives.
2016–present clashes in West Iran refers to the ongoing military clashes between Kurdish insurgent party Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which began in April 2016. Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) and Komalah expressed their support to the Kurdish cause of PDKI as well, with both clashing with Iranian security forces in 2016 and 2017 respectively. In parallel, a leftist Iranian Kurdish rebel group PJAK resumed military activities against Iran in 2016, following a long period of stalemate.
Lahur Talabani, also known as Lahur Sheikh Jangi Talabani is an Iraqi politician, he was the Vice-President of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the former Director of the Zanyari Agency and Former Director of the Counter Terrorism Group (CTG). Known commonly as Sheikh Lahur, Talabani was a leading figure in the fight against terror especially in the fight against the Islamic State. After losing a leadership battle and being ousted from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Lahur proceeded to found his own party, the People's Front.
The Battle of al-Yaarubiyah was fought in late October 2013 at al-Yaarubiyah, a strategically important town at the border of Syria with Iraq. Affiliates of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), namely the YPG/YPJ and local Arab tribes, attacked the settlement in an attempt to capture it from Jihadist and Islamist groups, led by the Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. After four days of heavy fighting, the Islamists were defeated and expelled from al-Yaarubiyah.
The Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan, was an unrecognized Kurdish Islamic state located in the Halabja Governorate. It had been outside the control of the Iraqi government since 1991, and was a self-governing entity within the Kurdistan Region in 1994, and officially declared independence in 2001. It ceased to exist after Operation Viking Hammer.
The Second Soran Unit was a Kurdish Salafi elite militant group active from the late 1980s until 2003.
