Kurdish police arrested three members of al Qaeda connected Ansar al-Islam, and after further investigation, found 1.2 tons of explosives, part of which was stored under a bridge near Kirkuk. The captured Ansar men admitted they were going to set off large bombs around northern Iraq.  In the last few weeks, the Kurds say they have arrested at least fifty Islamic radicals (belonging to various organizations.) The Kurds are much more pro-American than the Sunni and Shia Arabs down south, and as a result there has been much less violence and disorder in the north. But the Iranian border up north is full of ancient smuggling routes, and Islamic radicals have been coming over from terrorist training camps in Iran. The camps in Iran, which have been operating for years, are among the few left that al Qaeda members can use (the others are in Pakistan.)