'Kurdish Sept. 11' boosts resolve

[La_Serpiente]

'Kurdish Sept. 11' boosts resolve

Two suicide bombers killed at least 101 people in Arbil on Sunday. Both major Kurdish parties were targeted.

ARBIL, IRAQ – Kurdistan's two main political parties, rivals who had fought long and bloody civil wars for local dominance in the 1990s, were on the cusp of setting old animosities aside when terror returned to Arbil.

So it was a bitter irony that twin suicide attacks on Sunday morning - which Kurdish officials say they believe was organized by the Al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Islam - targeted both parties at a time when they are moving at full speed towards closer cooperation. Indeed, officials at the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) believe the two things are linked.

"We have so many enemies that don't want us to be united - they want to keep us weak and divided," says Kakamin Mujar, the Arbil party boss for the KDP. "But this only strengthens our will to work together. We see that we can't afford to be divided." Other Kurdish leaders say they believe the attacks, which killed about 100 and injured more than 130, may have been in revenge for what they say was help provided to the US in the capture of suspected Al Qaeda member Hasan Ghul. The Pakistani national was captured in northern Iraq last week.

The PUK - driven out of Arbil by a KDP offensive in 1996 with the help of Saddam Hussein - opened party offices here three months ago, and both sides say they're close to uniting the administration of their region.

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'Kurdish Sept. 11' boosts resolve