Shots Fired at Oslo Home of Kurdish Cleric

A man was injured when several shots were fired early Monday morning into the Oslo residence of Mullah Krekar, a Kurdish cleric who helped found the militant Islamist group Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2001 while he enjoyed refugee status in Norway. Mr. Krekar, whose birth name is Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, was at home with several other people when shots were fired through a window shortly before 2 a.m., according to an Oslo police spokeswoman, Unni Grondahl. Mullah Krekar’s son-in-law, who was not identified by name, was struck in the arm during the shooting but his injuries were not life-threatening, Ms. Grondahl said. Afterward, the injured man was taken away in an ambulance while Mullah Krekar and the others left in a police vehicle. The gun was apparently fired from a sheltered outdoor corridor providing access to the cleric’s fifth-floor family apartment in Oslo’s Toyen district. Soon after the bullets were fired, the police spokeswoman said, two men were seen running. A short time later, in a secluded parking lot nearby, the police discovered a burning car and began investigating whether it was connected with the shooting.

Mr. Krekar, 53, was granted refugee status here after the Gulf War of 1991 but traveled frequently to Kurdistan in the 1990s. After several armed groups joined forces to form Ansar al-Islam in December 2001, he emerged as its leader, calling for an independent, Islamic Kurdistan, according to court documents here. The United States accused the organization of being a link between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. That accusation, later partially discredited, was used to help justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq by American forces. Mr. Krekar’s militant activities abroad caused a furor here when they came to light in 2002. He has claimed that his leadership of Ansar al Islam ended later that year, but in 2007 Norway’s Supreme Court ruled that he remained a threat to Norwegian security as a result of continuing ties to the radical group or its offshoots.

Since 2003, the Norwegian authorities have sought to deport him but have been stymied by a lack of assurance from Iraq that he would not face the death penalty in connection with lethal bombings and other violent acts attributed to Ansar al-Islam. Under Norwegian law no one can be sent abroad to face capital punishment. Terror-related criminal charges in Norway were dropped in 2004 for lack of evidence, and he has lived freely in Oslo since then, although his activities have been monitored. His wife and four children obtained Norwegian citizenship in 2000.

Source: New York Times