Ansar al-Islam, formerly known as Ansar al-Sunna (AS), is a Sunni extremist group of Iraqi Kurds and Arabs intent on establishing a Salafi Islamic state in Iraq under sharia, a strict interpretation of Qur‘anic instruction. AI has worked in the past with al-Qa‘ida senior leadership and al-Qa‘ida in Iraq (AQI), and it has carried out joint operations in Iraq. Some AI members trained in al-Qa‘ida camps in Afghanistan, and the group provided safehaven to al-Qa‘ida fighters in northern Iraq before Operation Iraqi Freedom commenced in March 2003.

Ansar al-Sunna leader Abu ‘Abdallah al-Shafi‘i in December 2007 announced that the group was reverting to its original name of Ansar al-Islam, previously used from the time of its establishment in 2001 until mid-2003. Al-Shafi‘i claimed the change was intended to signify a consolidation of the group’s Salafi jihadist principles. It may have also been an attempt to distance itself from members of AS who, in May 2007, announced an agreement with the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Army of the Mujahidin to form a united group called “The Jihad and Reformation Front.” In late July 2009, several AI members, including the group’s deputy and operational commander, Mullah Halgurd, were arrested. The loss of Halgurd could disrupt the group’s operational capabilities and ability to recruit; in the near-term al-Shafi’i and other remaining leaders will work to fill Halgurd’s duties and responsibilities.

AI operates primarily in northern Iraq and consistently claims the second-largest number of Sunni jihadist attacks in Iraq behind AQI. The group regularly targets Coalition forces, Iraqi Government and security forces, and Iraqi political parties, including the suicide bombing of a US military dining facility in Mosul in December 2004 that killed 22 US and Coalition soldiers. AI continues to conduct and claim responsibility for car bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings in Iraq.