IRAQ. Iraqi Kurdistan, Between the town of Halabja and the Iranian Border. PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) territory. April 3, 2003. Peshmergas checking on dead al-Ansar fighters (Arab/Pakistani/Afghan origin) lying dead in the region of Halabja. U.S. special forces and their Iraqi Kurdish allies (Peshmergas) claimed on 04/01/03 that they had crushed a militant Islamist group (Ansar al-Islam) in Kurdish-held Northern Iraq which they accuse of having ties to Osama BIN LADEN's al Qaeda network. Al-Ansar had hit back with a series of suicide bombings(see story dwt2003008).