Mapping Militant Organizations
| Formed | March 2007 |
|---|---|
| Disbanded | Group is active. |
| First Attack | May 2007: AQKB militants drove a car bomb into the Kurdistan Interior and Security Ministry building. (19 killed) [1] |
| Last Attack | September 2010: AQKB militants were arrested after a foiled AQKB suicide bomb attack targeted security officers in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. (2 injured) [2] |
| Updated | March 24, 2017 |
Al Qaeda Kurdish Battalions (AQKB) is a Kurdish, Salafi militant organization affiliated with Al Qaeda (AQ) that operates in Iraqi Kurdistan. Al Qaeda announced AQKB’s formation in a video entitled “Back to the Mountains,” which it released in March 2007. [3] [4] The video called upon Iraq’s Kurdish population to turn against its political leaders, whom AQ deems traitors to Islam because of their secular ideology. AQKB’s membership is believed to be primarily composed of former members of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK). [5]
There are several competing theories about the impetus behind AQKB’s formation. Some analysts believe that when the 2007 U.S. surge and Sunni Awakening expelled Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) from southern and central Iraq, AQ leadership turned its attention to establishing a new foothold in Iraqi Kurdistan. Although AQ had historically attracted little support among Iraq’s Kurds because of their largely secular-nationalist beliefs and the strength of their security forces, the strong U.S. presence in the center and south of the country left AQ with few other options. Other sources pin the emergence on the group on the 2007 referendum on the future of Kirkuk. Many Islamist groups were, at the time, attempting to gain support in Northern Iraq in order to thwart a vote in the referendum that would bring Kirkuk under the authority of the KRG. Still others believe that AQ established AQKB in response to the Kurdish peshmerga’s decision to participate in the U.S.-backed Baghdad Security Plan. [6]
From 2007 through 2010, AQKB perpetrated a series of attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan. [7] AQKB primarily targeted secular Kurdish parties in the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), namely the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP). [8] Among its most notorious attacks were its May 2007 bombing of the Kurdistan Interior and Security Ministries building in which 19 people were killed and its July 2007 attack on Kurdish border security forces in Penjwin, Iraq in which eight Kurdish soldiers were killed. [9] [10]
After 2010, the group largely faded into obscurity, and there is little verifiable information about its current activities. Although it was initially aligned with AQI and was a member of its umbrella organization, the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), AQKB released a statement in April 2014 in which it denounced AQI’s successor organization, the Islamic State (IS). Some reports suggest that AQKB militants are fighting IS alongside the KDP and PUK in northern Iraq. However, such reports have not been verified. [11] [12] [13]
Very little is known about the leadership of AQKB. The group has pledged its allegiance to AQ central leadership and is believed to take orders from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of AQ. [14] [15]
AQKB shares Al Qaeda’s ideology and goals; it is a sunni jihadist organization that seeks to implement Shariah Law and establish an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East. [18] [19] [20]
U.S. State Department Foreign Terrorist Organizations, January 1, 2012 to Present [22]
AQKB is also designated as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government. [23] [24]
AQKB’s resources and benefactors are largely unknown. However, given the group’s close affiliation with Al-Qaeda, it is likely it has received funds from AQ central leadership. [25] [26] There has also been some speculation that the group has received funds from Western sources, particularly Canada, since taking up arms against the Islamic State in 2014; AQKB nevertheless remains designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Canadian government. [27] [28]
AQKB allegedly maintained bases in the Iranian towns of Mariwan and Sanandej, suggesting that the Iranian government at least tacitly tolerated the group. [29] There has also been some speculation that the group has received funds from Western sources, particularly Canada, since taking up arms against the Islamic State in 2014; AQKB nevertheless remains designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Canadian government. [30] [31]
AQKB is based primarily in Iraqi Kurdistan along the Iran-Iraq border, although some reports suggest that the group may have bases in the Iranian towns of Mariwan and Sanandej. In the past, the group’s members have also occasionally traveled farther south into Iraq to coordinate with AQI. [32] [33] There is also evidence that AQKB members traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to receive training, most likely from AQ operatives, on how to conduct chemical weapons attacks. [34]
Although AQKB has only perpetrated a handful of attacks since its formation in 2007, when it has carried out acts of terrorism it has most often used suicide and car bombings. However, there is also evidence that AQKB sought to carry out chemical weapons attacks and sent several of its members to Afghanistan and Pakistan to receive training with chemical weapons. The group allegedly sought to use an unmanned aircraft to carry out chemical attacks and blow up the Qaragul Bridge in the Sulaymaniyah province. Other forms of chemical attacks planned by AQKB included wiping the handles of cars used to transport Kurdish politicians with deadly poisons. [35] There is no evidence that AQKB was ever put its plans to utilize chemical weapons into action.
AQKB’s primary targets have included Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) buildings, troops, and employees in addition to non-Sunni religious groups, namely the Yazidis. [36] The group’s most notable attack was a truck bombing of the building of the Kurdish Ministries of the Interior and Security in Iraq, killing 19 people. [37] Reports also surfaced in 2014 that AQKB was fighting alongside other Kurdish groups against the Islamic State (IS). [38] [39] [40]
AQKB does not have any political activities.
AQKB is an affiliate of Al Qaeda and has sworn allegiance to both Aymenn al-Zawahiri and former AQI leader, Abu Umar al-Baghdadi. The group was also a member of the Islamic State of Iraq, the umbrella organization founded by AQI. [44] [45] However, AQKB released a statement in April 2014 making clear its opposition to AQI’s successor organization, the Islamic State (IS). There are even reports that AQKB has actively fought against IS in northern Iraq. [46] [47]
AQKB’s traditional enemies are the secular Kurdish organizations that participate in the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), namely the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The majority of the group’s attacks have been aimed at Kurdish government forces. [48] [49] [50] [51]
AQKB’s extreme Islamist ideology and terrorist tactics have rendered the group highly unpopular among Iraq’s predominantly secular and nationalist Kurdish population. [52]