It had been outside the control of the Iraqi government since 1991, and was a self-governing entity within the Kurdistan Region in 1994, and officially declared independence in 2001.

Mullah Krekar presented the Islamic emirate as an independent Kurdish state and claimed that it would not expand past Kurdistan.

[12][13][14][15][16] Like Mullah Krekar, many Ansar al-Islam fighters and leaders also held nationalist views and treated the new emirate as a victory of the Kurdish independence movement.

[17][9][10][11] It was also reported that Ansar al-Islam enforced strict Sharia law, committed atrocities against the Yarsani minority, and harshly persecuted Sufis.

[23] After the September 11 attacks, al-Qaeda sought to use the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan as a base for future operations.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi left Afghanistan and was smuggled into the emirate with the help of Kurds from Iran and Europe.

[25] Saddam Hussein was aware of the Islamic Emirate, and considered Ansar al-Islam a separatist threat, and attempted to gather intelligence against them.

Mullah Krekar had threatened to personally kill Saddam Hussein if Iraq tried anything against the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan.

After the loss of the Emirate, most of Ansar al-Islam gathered at the Iran–Iraq border, where they were smuggled into Iran by Iranian Kurds.

[30][31][32] Ali Bapir reconciled with the Kurdistan Regional Government, and registered his group as a legal political party.

He also claimed that an Ansar al-Islam invasion of Turkey was imminent if the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan had not been captured.