Kurdish Hamas

Kurdish Hamas was a Kurdish Salafi organization formed by a group of veterans of the Afghanistan War who split from the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK) in 1997. Kurdish Hamas’ members tended to be more radical and Jihadist than those of the IMK, as evidence by Kurdish Hamas' goal of implementing of Shariah Law across Iraq. The group was based in the city of Khormal and was known for its attacks on bookstores, clubs, beauty salons, and tourist areas. Kurdish Hamas also targeted women whom the group felt did not dress modestly enough. Kurdish Hamas was initially led by Hassan Sofi and subsequently by Omar Barziani after the IMK assassinated Sofi in 1998. In 1999, Kurdish Hamas merged with the IMK and al-Nahda to form the Islamic Unity Movement of Kurdistan (IUMK). The IUMK only lasted until 2001. Barziani again split from the group with a large number of the IUMK’s more radical Islamist members. He temporarily reformed Kurdish Hamas, only to merge it with Tawheed in July 2001 to form the Al-Tawhid Islamic Front (TIF). In late 2011, TIF merged with several other Kurdish Islamist groups to form Ansar al-Islam.