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[La_Serpiente]

An Islamic Terrorism Suspect, Living in Norwegian Refuge, Plays Down His Past

OSLO, Dec. 11 — While bombs explode in Iraq, killing soldiers and civilians, one of the men the United States says is partly responsible is sitting in a garret apartment in the land of the Vikings, dreaming of an Islamic state in the country he left behind.

Mullah Krekar, as the man is known, founded the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam in northeastern Iraq two years ago. A Kurd, he was arrested in Iran and deported to Europe in May 2002.

The shadowy group, which he said had about 600 members when he was there, drew international attention after the United States singled it out in the period just before the war in Iraq as the link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. American forces attacked Ansar forces in the war's opening salvos, and the Pentagon has blamed the group for violence in Iraq since. The Italian police now want to question Mr. Krekar about a suspected Ansar cell in Milan. Its members, arrested last month, are believed to have been recruiting fighters for Iraq.

But Mr. Krekar, a passportless refugee here, says that there is no link and that the United States is exaggerating — though not necessarily inventing — his comrades' role.

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An Islamic Terrorism Suspect, Living in Norwegian Refuge, Plays Down His Past

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