Sargat, Iraq ? In a crude attempt at public relations, guerrillas draped in grenades and brandishing Kalashnikovs allowed journalists Saturday to inspect a compound in northern Iraq that U.S. Secretary of State Colin M. Powell identified in a satellite photograph before the U.N. Security Council last week as a terrorist haven for manufacturing chemical agents.

The fighters, members of the group known as Ansar al-Islam, disputed Powell’s charges that they were linked to al-Qaida and masterminding a poison factory and training camp to attack Western targets from bases scattered across the snow-dusted mountains of this region.

“You can search as you like. There are no chemicals here,” Ansar spokesman Ayub Khidir told the group of journalists.

A collection of half-finished cinderblock buildings, the compound is home to the Victory Brigade, which has been battling forces of the autonomous Kurdish enclave in Iraq along the border with Iran.

The buildings and the fighters here were thrust into the world’s spotlight when Powell told the Security Council that Ansar was a link between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. Powell said the group, with assistance from operatives of Osama bin Laden, was making toxins and training terrorists. The satellite picture unnerved Ansar, which believes it would now be a likely target in the event of a U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Ansar officials denied connections to al-Qaida or any foreign countries, including Iran. Contrary to Kurdish and U.S. intelligence, the group said there were no Arabs or Afghans among its brigades, totaling between 400 and 700 guerrillas.

Asked if he admired bin Laden, one fighter said: “We admire all Muslims. They are our brothers.”