WASHINGTON — Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has asked the Kurdish government to form a committee to investigate Kurdish jihadists going to Syria for jihad. The KRG is facing the same problem as other European countries: Jihad in Syria has not only brought al-Qaeda to Europe’s doorstep but also to that of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, as shown by an attack in Erbil on Sept. 26.

There were reports indicating that several Kurdish Islamist fighters were recruited in mosques in the province of Sulaimaniyah. The Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) captured several Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan in Syria, and in July Kurdish TV broadcast an interview with three captured Kurdish Islamic fighters. Most of the Kurdish Islamist fighters came from Islamist strongholds inside the province of Sulaimaniyah, close to the Iranian border. 

The city of Halabja located in Sulaimaniyah province has been the historical stronghold of Kurdish Islamists since the 1960s. The first Kurdish Islamic party, the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK), was created in Halabja and declared a holy war against the Iraqi government in 1987 in response to the genocidal Anfal campaign.

However, the movement splintered as a result of the IMK joining the Kurdish government, and several Kurdish jihadist groups emerged that controlled parts of Halabja. In March 2003, a joint US special force and Kurdish fighters dislodged fighters of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, which fled to Iran and has since been mostly operating outside the official Kurdistan Region of Iraq.