Profiling Ansar Al-Islam: Kurdish Jihadists Threatening Russian Forces In Syria – Analysis

By Daniele Garofalo*

Ansar al-Islam (AAI) is a jihadist group that formed in September 2001 in Iraqi Kurdistan from the merger of two small groups: Jund al-Islam, which was then led by Abu Abdullah al-Shafi’i, and a splinter group of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan, which was led by Mullah Krekar. In time, Krekar would...