IRAQ. Iraqi Kurdistan, Halabja/Iranian Border/PUK. March, 2003. Peshmergas loot and check a former Ansar al-Islam position and find "Roland" missiles, suicide bomber vests filled with TNT and detonators, chemicals and weapons. 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 ties to Osama BIN LADEN's al Qaeda network. Al-Ansar had hit back with a series of suicide bombings(see story dwt2003008), one of which killed a journalist.
(1)These are chemicals thought to be made of cyanide.