Ansar al-Islam formed in 1998 as a breakaway faction of Islamist Kurds,
splitting off from a group, the Islamic Movement of Iraqi Kurdistan (IMIK). Both
Ansar and the IMIK were initially composed almost exclusively of Kurds. U.S.
concerns about Ansar grew following the U.S. defeat of the Taliban and Al Qaeda
in Afghanistan in late 2001, when some Al Qaeda activists, mostly Arabs, fled to Iraq and associated there with the Ansar movement. At the peak, about 600 Arab fighters
lived in the Ansar al-Islam enclave, near the town of Khurmal.18 Ansar fighters
clashed with Kurdish fighters from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of
the two mainstream Iraqi Kurdish parties, around Halabja in December 2002. Ansar
gunmen were allegedly responsible for an assassination attempt against PUK “prime
minister” of the Kurdish region Barham Salih (now a deputy Prime Minister of Iraq)
in April 2002.

It appears that there was in fact some presence in Iraq.