Posted on 05/13/2006 9:43:52 AM PDT by FairOpinion
London, May 13 – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had provided the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq heavy weapons including anti-aircraft missiles, it emerged on Friday.
The Iraqi daily az-Zaman which is published in London and Baghdad quoted credible Iraqi sources as revealing that the IRGC had given al-Qaeda in Iraq, Strela-type SAM-7 surface-to-air missiles, modern explosives, and a large number of personnel arms including Kalashnikovs and BKC machineguns.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is believed to be led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is on the United States’ wanted list.
The report said that representatives of al-Zarqawi’s group met in Beirut with members of the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah and through them established channels with Tehran.
Three close aides to al-Zarqawi travelled to Iran via a security checkpoint in the Iraqi border province of al-Amara from where they met with Iranian officials, the report added.
The United States and Iraqi officials have accused Iran’s radical Islamic government of sending agents and arms into Iraq to assist the insurgency.
The IRGC was founded in the early days of the Islamic revolution in 1979 as an armed force loyal to Iran’s clerical rulers. Its commanders directly report to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and their mission is to “protect and propagate” the Islamic revolution.
We need to take action soon.
IMPOSSIBLE! Iran is Shiite and Al qaeda is Wahhabi! (sarcasm)
Why are they arming a group that's killing their own people?
I doubt that this claim is true.
ping
Why do you doubt that?
Do you have any idea what kind of news source Azzaman is?
You don't but I do and they are a source base in the UK and Iraq that is better then the vast majority of papers in the UK.
Here is some more info about the missles and the report.
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
Actually, Al Qaeda is made up of two ideological groups that are sometimes at odds with each other. You got one right (Wahhabis), but the other is the faction that has been inspired by the Egyptian group the Muslim Brotherhood and their propaganda minister in the 1960s, Sayyid Qutb.
Sayed Bin Laden assumed day to day operational control of Al Qaeda after Osama was forced on the run in Afghanistan.
Sayed is reported to live at Lavizan, a Pasdaran military base near Tehran, the same base that was bulldozed to replace contaminated dirt with clean dirt to fool IAEA Inspectors.
Another 400 to 600 Al Qaeda are also reported to live at Lavizan, ostensibly under "house arrest", but openly free and actively pursuing terrorism, with help from the Iranian Vice president, top Iranian generals, top Iranian Intelligence officials, and top Pasdaran officers.
Iran is dirty, complicit with Al Qaeda, and it will not stop until we institute regime change in Iran.
Airstrikes may or may not halt Iran's nuclear weapons program, but that program is a symptom, not a cure. The root problem lies with the mindset of the hardline Mullahs, and only their death or capture will instigate real change in Iran's behavior.
I wish simple airstrikes would be enough too, but they will not. They may not penetrate deep enough to destabilize the centrifuge cascades, and Iran will force greater military involvement upon us, through strikes in Israel and Iraq, if we try.
Bottom line, the West or Iran as is, the time to make a choice is running out. No decision is still a decision for war, as Iran will force the issue up to including achieving an operational nuclear capacity, which they will then use to force us to accept all of their demands, including energy blackmail and terrorism at their whim and convenience.
None of this is new information. Believe as you will, act as you will, a confontation is cast in stone, and is unavoidable, regardless of which choices are made in the west. The only thing we get to choose is whether the confrontation happens on our terms or Iran's. Our terms preclude facing a nuclear regime that has sponsored state terrorism for more than three decades. Obviously, Iran has a different agenda.
Missile may have come from Iran
The Army now believes that the Lynx helicopter shot down over central Basra at the weekend was most probably hit by a surface-to-air missile, obtained possibly from neighbouring Iran, after missile casings were discovered on the third floor of a nearby building, security sources in the city said yesterday.
The discovery, if confirmed, will be a worrying development for British operations in Iraq, which are increasingly reliant on helicopter "air bridges" to move men and equipment to reduce the risk of convoys being ambushed by roadside bombs.
The discarded missile parts were located when a search was conducted of the building as British troops swept the surrounding area.
The missile is understood to have been identified as a Russian-made weapon that can be packed into a golf bag and quickly assembled and fired by one person with minimal training.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/09/wirq209.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/05/09/ixnewsnew.html
hmm. I guess that's where Zawahiri comes from? Wasn't he an MD and head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad?
I have read a little on Qutb. More Americans need to know about that guy. Came here, mingled with us way back in the 50s, then went back to Egypt and told everyone he hated us and everyone else should too.
Iran is really asking for it, between actively supporting terrorists and developing nukes.
We need to take action soon.
They are going out of their way to tweak our nose,, figuring we are over extended and won't risk the oil pipeline. Well, that will only work for so long. We have airfields in Iraq now, I wonder if we could fly B52s out of Baghdad (probably not).
In any event, I see this as almost totally a bombing war, just reduce their military infrastructure to dust. It seems inevitable.
You're exactly right. Zawahiri was/is a follower of Qutb. You're even more right that more Americans need to know about him. I wrote a term paper in college about Qutb, which I posted on FR. You can read it here.
Thanks. Great paper.
BUMP
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