Terrorist Groups planning to undermine security of Kurdistan Region, Sulaimaniya Security says

SULAIMANIYA / IraqiNews.com: The Director of (Asayish) Security in north Iraq’s Kurdistan Region on Wednesday charged Ansar al-Islam with ”planning to undermine the region’s security by carrying out terrorist operations similar to those carried out last Wednesday in Qala Diza.” “The Asayish forces have uncovered information that the so-called Ansar al-Islam group is planning to carry out terrorist acts aimed at undermining the security of the Kurdistan Region, after the suicide operations carried out by one of its members last week in Qala Diza, 131 km to the northwest of Sulaimaniya Province,”he said. He urged citizens in the region to “be cautious and cooperate with the security forces in Sulaimaniya and other provinces of the region, in order to protect the security and stability achieved in the region.” A suicide bomber had blew himself up on the main highway passing through Qala Diza last Wednesday, Sept. 29, after being confronted by Asayish forces. The blast left two Asayish men wounded. Security forces in the Province said the suicide bomber was planning to blow himself up among a Pesh Merga (Kurdish armed forces), who were receiving their salaries. This suicide explosion is the first of its kind in Kurdistan in the past two years, since a suicide bomber blew a car bomb in front of Sulaimaniya  Hotel in Spring, 2008, killing one its guards and wounding several others. Sulaimaniya, the center of the province carrying the same name, is 364 km to the northeast of Baghdad. SKH/SR 87