Suicide Bomber Kills 3 at N. Iraq Checkpoint

An Islamic extremist group in northern Iraq apparently carried out its first suicide bombing Wednesday at a military checkpoint in a mountainous region where guerrillas linked to Al Qaeda have been battling secular Kurdish forces.

The attack, which left four people dead, came as the group known as Ansar al-Islam has intensified its operations in the weeks leading to a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq. The Bush administration has labeled Ansar a terrorist organization and has targeted it for military strikes during any war against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

A Kurdish security official said a man detonated 9 pounds of explosives hidden in his vest at a checkpoint near the town of Halabja, killing himself, two security guards and a taxi driver. The official said the man detonated the vest when security guards, thinking he looked suspicious, ordered him out of the taxi he had been riding in.

“The security guards suspected him because of the way he looked,” said the official, who speculated that the intended target was most likely a military barracks of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, less than two miles away. But when guards stopped the taxi, the bomber “pressed the button,” the official said.

The bomb was made of dynamite and metal shards that were glued to the vest. Ansar has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

With 500 to 700 guerrillas, Ansar al-Islam has been fighting PUK forces for control of about a dozen villages in this harsh sliver of northern Iraq near the border with Iran. The conflict began in 2001 as a local struggle between Islamists and the secular Kurdish government.

Ansar drew international attention for its ties to Osama bin Laden and for providing sanctuary to Al Qaeda fighters fleeing the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. The Bush administration claims that the group has been manufacturing chemical agents for terrorist attacks, an assertion Ansar denies.

The organization has attempted two other suicide bombings. Both failed when the teenage would-be bombers became frightened and were arrested.

Ansar’s most dramatic attacks were an assassination attempt on PUK leader Barham Salih, which killed five bodyguards, and the slaying this month of Shawkat Haji Mushir, a Kurdish legislator and military hero.

The group, according to PUK military commander Burhan Saeed Sofi, believes that it will be attacked if the U.S. invades Iraq. Some of the guerrillas have fled the country, and others have increased mortar and rocket attacks from bunkers. Smaller units also are believed to be preparing for more suicide bombings and assassination attempts.

“They’ve been reinforcing positions,” Sofi said. “We’ve seen them laying new land mines and rigging explosives.... Their shelling has intensified in the last two weeks from 20 to 30 rounds a day to 100 rounds a day.”