Ansar al-Islam (AI) is a radical Islamist group of Iraqi Kurds and Arabs who have vowed to establish an independent Islamic state in Iraq. The group was formed in September  2001. In the fall of 2003, a statement was issued calling all jihadists in Iraq to unite under the name Ansar al- Sunnah (AS).  Since that time, it is likely that AI has posted all claims of attack under the name Ansar al-Sunnah. AI is closely allied with al-Qa’ida and Abu Mus‘ab al- Zarqawi’s group, Tanzim Qa’idat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (QJBR) in Iraq. Some members of Ansar al-IslamI trained in al-Qa’ida camps in Afghanistan, and the group provided safe haven to al-Qa’ida fighters before Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Since Operation Iraqi Freedom, Ansar al-Islam has become one of the leading groups engaged in anti-Coalition attacks in Iraq and has developed a robust propaganda campaign to attract new members and combatants.  Ansar al-Islam was established in December 2001 after a merger between Jund al-Islam, led by Abu Abdallah al-Shafi'i and the Islamic Movement splinter group led by Mullah Krekar. Both leaders are believed to have served in Afghanistan. The group is based in Biyarah and surrounding areas near the border with Iran. Though the group was dated officially to December 2001 by the US government,  the group – Ansar al-Islam – emerged just days before the Sept. 11 attacks on the US. It delivered a fatwa, or manifesto, to the citizens in mountain villages against "the blasphemous secularist, political, social, and cultural" society there, according to Kurdish party leaders.   Reports ealry on before the US and Coalition invasion of Iraq had Ansar al- Islam with ties to Saddam Hussein's regime. 

Ansar al-Islam is considered a very conservative branch of Islam. Their beliefs are comparable to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan. In their early days of inception  Ansar al-Islam fortified a number of villages along the Iranian border, with Iranian artillery support.  The local villagers were subjected to harsh sharia laws; musical instruments were destroyed and singing was forbidden. The only school for girls in the area was destroyed, and all pictures of women removed from merchandise labels. Sufi shrines were desecrated and members of the Kakkai (a non-Muslim Kurdish religious group) were forced to convert to Islam, flee or die.  Local authorities claim that the group seeks to expand the area under its control by undermining the local administration, with the ultimate goal of imposing rule under Islamic law over all of the northern part of the country. The group restricted non-Islamic worship, imposed severe restrictions on public behavior, and administered all civil affairs under an extreme interpretation of Islamic laws.