http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21436315-1702,00.html Iran 'paying Iraqis $500 a month'
IRANIAN agents are paying local Iraqis around the southern city of Basra as much as $500 a month to carry out attacks on coalition forces. British Lieutenant Colonel Justin Maciejewski said contact with locals suggested that the "vast majority" of violence against British troops stationed in the city came from outside Iraq. "We haven't found any 'smoking gun' but certainly all the circumstantial evidence points to Iranian involvement in the bombings here in Basra, which is disrupting the city to a great extent," he added. Lt-Col Maciejewski, who is the commanding officer at the British base at Basra Palace, went on: "Local sheikhs and tribal leaders here in Basra - who are desperate to prevent this violence escalating - are telling us that Iranian agents are paying up to $500 a month for young Basrawi men to attack us. "I have no direct proof that I can put my hand on, but I have no reason to disbelieve what we have been told by locals here, who are desperate for this interference in their internal affairs to stop. "They want to rebuild their city and make it a thriving city here in southern Iraq." The officer's comments follow those by Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has on a number of occasions accused Tehran of supplying Iraqis opposed to the coalition presence with weapons, via Iraq's loose eastern border with Iran. "We have a lot of very modern and quite sophisticated weaponry being used against us - weaponry that could only really have been procured from a state," Lt-Col Maciejewski said. "These are not old munitions from the Iran-Iraq war. They are much more modern, some of them produced in 2006 and the locals are telling us that these are coming in from Iran." Mr Blair announced in February that the 7200-strong British contingent in and around Basra would be cut by 1600 in the coming months and drop to about 5000 by the end of the year as Iraqi security services assume more control. Forces are expected to remain at Basra Palace until late summer with the bulk of British troops remaining at Basra Air Station to support the Iraqis. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
