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Al-Qaeda suspected over Kurd bombings

Suicide bombings that killed 65 people in northern Iraq bear the hallmarks of al-Qaeda-linked extremists and could be revenge for the arrest of senior operatives, US and Kurdish officials say.

Black flags lined the streets across the northern Kurdish region as thousands of Kurds, dressed in black, mourned the dead in Arbil, 350km north of Baghdad.

Leaders of the two Kurdish political groups targeted by Sunday's twin blasts and coalition officials in Iraq say the attacks could have been the work of the extremist Ansar al-Islam.

The radical group, which controlled an enclave of northeastern Iraq before being crushed by US forces at the end of March, is suspected of links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Senior coalition officials have already warned of a growing al-Qaeda threat in Iraq as foreign fighters team up with homegrown guerrillas, providing funding and tactical support.

One top coalition military official said the attack on offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Arbil may have been revenge for the capture in Iraq on Jan. 22 of Hasan Guhl, a Pakistani al-Qaeda facilitator.

Guhl was seized near the northern border with Iran.

He was believed to have been scouting locations for al-Qaeda operations as well as seeking to join forces with other Islamic extremists.

According to one Kurdish source, KDP militiamen played a key role in the capture, less than 100km from Arbil.

Senior Kurdish officials said that radical Islamic groups had dispatched the bombers, who slipped through lax security during the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival to mingle with guests and get close to Kurdish leaders.

Key figures were killed from both the parties, which for more than a decade controlled the semi-autonomous north during the rule of Saddam Hussein in defiance of the Iraqi president.

"The attacks were orchestrated by Islamists of the Ansar al-Islam, paid for by the neighboring countries, because these methods are not those of Iraqis but of foreigners coming from nearby countries," said Adel Butani, a spokesman for the KDP, who was injured in the attack.

Coalition officials say an increasing use of suicide bombing tactics in Iraq points to the involvement of foreign fighters, possibly working in league with Saddam loyalists.

They said the foreigners were taking advantage of a 10-month insurgency to destabilize the region, passing on techniques and tactics to homegrown insurgents and using Iraqis as pawns to further their goals.
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