Krekar reportedly has imposed Taliban-like laws in villages he controls, forbidding girls from going to school, demanding that women are fully covered and prohibiting music and advertising.
Krekar heads a group called Ansar al-Islam that allegedly has ties to Teheran, Baghdad and the al-Qaida terror network. The group has mounted a bitter conflict with the secular Kurdish authorities in the area.
The group has declared jihad, or holy war, against the political parties that control the autonomous Kurdish area that was established after the Gulf War in 1991. Meanwhile, Krekar's own family is living in Oslo under the protection of Norwegian law.
Recent revelations about Krekar's activites have unleashed a scandal in Norway, where he was granted refugee status after first arriving in the country in 1991.
