-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: March 31, 2007 9:51:23 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: First Shot?
Caveat lector!
Iranian Showdown With U.S. Forces inside Iraq
By Anna Mulrine
Posted 3/23/07
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070323/23iran.htm
As the British government demanded the immediate release of 15 of
its sailors whose boats were seized by Iranian naval vessels in the
Persian Gulf on Friday, U.S. News has learned that this is not the
first showdown that coalition forces have had with the Iranian
military.
According to a U.S. Army report out of Iraq obtained by U.S. News,
American troops, acting as advisers for Iraqi border guards, were
recently surrounded and attacked by a larger unit of Iranian
soldiers, well within the border of Iraq.
The report highlights the details: A platoon of Iranian soldiers on
the Iraqi side of the border fired rocket-propelled grenades and
used small arms against a joint patrol of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers
east of Balad Ruz. Four Iraqi Army soldiers, one interpreter, and
one Iraqi border policeman remain unaccounted for after the
September incident in eastern Diyala, 75 miles east of Baghdad.
During a joint border patrol, both American and Iraqi soldiers saw
two Iranian soldiers run from Iraq back across the Iranian border
as they approached. The patrol then came upon a single Iranian
soldier, on the Iraqi side of the border, who did not flee.
While the joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol was speaking with the soldier,
according to the report, the patrol was "approached by a platoon-
size element of Iranian soldiers." An Iranian border captain then
told the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers that "if they tried to leave their
location, the Iranians would fire upon them." During this
conversation with the Iranian captain, Iranian forces began firing
and continued when U.S. troops tried to withdraw.
Iraqi and American forces returned fire "to break contact and left
the area to report the incident," the report noted. "The Iranian
forces continued to fire indirect fire well into Iraq as Coalition
Force soldiers withdrew; for reasons unknown at this time, the
Iraqi Army forces remained behind."
No American soldiers were wounded in the incident.
It is possible that Iranians thought they were in Iranian
territory, according to U.S. military officials. Such border
confusions and disputes happen routinely.
In the British naval incident on Friday, Iran claimed it seized the
vessels because they were in its territorial waters. U.S. military
officials tell U.S. News that the Iranian forces very likely belong
to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which tend to be far more
aggressive than regular Iranian naval forces, which U.S. military
officials routinely describe as "extremely professional."
Iranian and Iraqi forces continue to clash in Iraq. U.S. special
operations forces have been tasked with nabbing Iranian members of
the Revolutionary Guards' al-Quds Brigade, the foreign operations
arm of the Iranian military, which also supports Hezbollah in
Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
U.S. forces grabbed six Iranians with alleged ties to the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil in
January, reportedly using stun bombs, seizing computers, and taking
down an Iranian flag from the raided building's roof. Iran said the
building was a consulate and the men were diplomats–and continues
to demand their release. One of Iraq's most powerful Shiite
politicians condemned the raid, calling it an attack on Iraq's
sovereignty.
American forces may soon be getting further insight into recent
Iranian attacks. Earlier this month, a former Iranian deputy
defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guards –and
is thought to have considerable knowledge of Iran's national
security network– left the country and is said to be cooperating
with western intelligence agencies, sharing information on links
between Iran and Hezbollah in south Lebanon, for example. Iranian
officials said the official, Ali Rez Asgari, was kidnapped by
western agents.
Shortly afterward, Iran threatened to retaliate in Europe for the
supposed kidnapping, what it claims to be the most recent in a
series of abductions in the past three months.
According to the British Sunday Times, in the Revolutionary Guards'
weekly newspaper this week, a columnist believed to have close ties
to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote: "We've got the
ability to capture a nice bunch of blue-eyed, blond-haired officers
and feed them to our fighting cocks. Iran has enough people who can
reach the heart of Europe and kidnap Americans and Israelis."
See what's free at AOL.com.
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