The statement signed by "the Ansar al-Islam commmand" said that "after the air strikes on its bases in northern Iraq by the Crusader invaders ... it has decided to move the bases of the mujahedin (holy warriors) so as not to be a direct target of air attacks.

"Our bases in northern Iraq were completely evacuated Thursday night and the mujahedin, with all their weapons, have redeployed to new positions better suited for the coming battles," said the statement, which appeared at groups.yahoo.com/group/abubanan.

It said "Ansar al-Islam's emir in Kurdistan," Abu Abdullah al-Shafei, had in a message "to the Muslims of Kurdistan, Iraq and the world" threatened "martyrdom operations (suicide attacks) against the American and British Crusader forces."

It claimed that "more than 300 martyrdom fighters have renewed their devotion to God" ahead of suicide attacks.

"We will make Iraq a cemetery for the Crusaders and their servile agents," it said.

Ansar al-Islam, or the Supporters of Islam, has come under frequent air attack since the US-led coalition launched the war March 20 to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, said Sunday US forces and their Kurdish allies had captured a camp run by Ansar in northeastern Iraq that may have been a safe haven for Al-Qaeda.

"Some of the bodies that we have recovered, enemy bodies that have been recovered up there, are not Iraqis, they're not Iranians. We don't know for sure, but they're most likely Al-Qaeda," Myers told CNN.

Ansar al-Islam is suspected in a suicide car bombing March 22 that killed an Australian journalist in northern Iraq. The attack came after Ansar positions were attacked by some 50 cruise missiles.

Four US troops were also killed Saturday in central Iraq in a suicide attack carried out by an Iraqi officer.

WAR.WIRE