Kurdistan Brigades
The Kurdistan Brigades, are a Kurdish militant Islamist organization, primarily active in the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Iran. It is the official Kurdish branch of al-Qaeda. It has also launched several attacks on the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq. The group was overshadowed by other Islamist factions but remains active.
Formation
The Kurdistan Brigades were founded in 2001 in the Hamrin Mountains, as an official Kurdish faction of Al-Qaeda. It was founded by former Ansar al-Islam militants.The creation of the Kurdistan Brigades was announced by Al-Qaeda in March 2007 through a video titled "Back to the Mountains." From 2007 to 2010, the group waged an insurgency against the Kurdistan Regional Government, carrying out numerous attacks targeting local authorities. In addition to their operations in Iraqi Kurdistan, they were also active in Iranian Kurdistan..Its ranks also included Kurds who were frustrated by the cooperation of the Kurdistan Region with the central Iraqi government and the Peshmerga withdrawal from certain Kurdish regions such as Kirkuk.
The group is considered to be relatively small, but it has camps in the Iranian Kurdish towns of Mariwan and Sanandaj.
In April 2014, the Kurdistan Brigades released a statement where they criticised the Islamic State and called on Kurds to not join it.