The Islamic Movement in Kurdistan is an Iraqi political party. It is a Sunni Islamist and Kurdish party based in the city of Halabjah in northern Iraq. The party was founded in the late 1980s by Sunni clerics opposed to the rule of Saddam Hussein. Its first leader was Shaykh Uthman Abd-Aziz . The group cooperated with Iran in the Iran-Iraq War. After the Gulf War the IMK became involved in the violent clashes for control of Iraqi Kurdistan. Despite these early tensions the IMK later participated in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan government. It continued to receive support from Iran, and also Wahhabi groups in Saudi Arabia. The movement ruled Halabjah and Irbil, but did not impose strict Islamic law leading to internal divisions. Some more radical members joined the al-Queda aligned Ansar al-Islam. The group did not join the Kurdish coalition in the 2005 Iraqi election running independently. It received over 60,000 votes (about 0.7%) and two seats in the transitional National Assembly of Iraq. After the elections, the party agreed to join the Kurdish alliance's National Assembly caucus.[1]