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Iraq Accuses Iranian Embassy of Killing Agents October 14, 2004 Agence France Presse/ AFP Iraq's national intelligence chief Mohammed al-Shahwani has accused Iran's Baghdad embassy of masterminding an assassination campaign that has seen 18 intelligence agents killed since mid-September. Shahwani told AFP a series of raids on three Iranian "safe houses" in Baghdad on September 29 had uncovered a treasure trove of documents linking Iran to plots to kill members of the intelligence service and using the Badr former militia of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq's (SCIRI) as its tool. SCIRI has vigourously denied the allegations...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A senior Iranian diplomat was gunned down in Iraq a day after Tehran sent a peace mission to help end a standoff between US forces and militant Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. A high-ranking foreign ministry official who is heading the delegation said the assassination was "most certainly" linked to his visit. He sought to play down his role in efforts to avert a major battle between the US military and Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, although it was unclear if the apparent change of position was a result of the killing. An AFP correspondent saw the body of...

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Husaini al-Sistani, Iraq's highest-ranking Shia cleric, has begun seriously throwing his weight around in Iraq, helping to organize a demonstration in Basra yesterday of tens of thousands of Shia faithful, to chant "No to America!" and demand immediate mass elections — in a country which has not had a reliable census in several decades, and where the infrastructure for a fair general election does not yet exist. Raising the temperature further, the second-ranking Shia cleric, Hojat Al-Islam Ali Abdulhakim Alsafi, has written a sarcastic public letter to President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair,...

The head of Iraq's Interim Governing Council says Iran should be paid reparations for the war that Saddam Hussein waged against it in the 1980s. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim said further discussion was needed to decide what if anything Iraq would pay itself. Iran claims $100bn in reparations for the brutal eight-year war that claimed about one million lives. Mr Hakim's remarks may augur improving Iran-Iraq relations now Saddam Hussein is in custody. The prominent Iraqi is also the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) the most important Shia Muslim party represented on the governing...

'WE GOT HIM!'Iraqi press: Nation 'swimming in sunshine'Elsewhere in Arab world media laments 'humiliation' of capture Posted: December 16, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Iraqi newspapers generally reacted with joy and relief to Saddam Hussein's capture by U.S. forces, but commentators elsewhere in the region spoke of humiliation brought upon the Arab world by the former dictator's submission to American soliders. Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody The leading independent Iraqi daily, Al-Zaman, in an editorial titled "The Fall of Saddam is Complete and the Sun has Returned to Shine on Iraq," said the captured former dictator proved to be a "coward...

Saddam is talking, but he isn't cooperative. New details on his capture and his first interrogation Saddam Hussein was captured on Sunday without a fight. But since then, according to a U.S. intelligence official in Iraq, the fallen dictator has been defiant. “He’s not been very cooperative,” said the official, who read the transcript of the initial interrogation report taken during the first questioning session. After his capture, Saddam was taken to a holding cell at the Baghdad Airport. He didn’t answer any of the initial questions directly, the official said, and at times seemed less than fully coherent. The...

Iraqis celebrated the capture of fallen dictator Saddam Hussein in traditional style, blasting away with their favourite weapons pointed to the skies and folk dancing in the streets. As news spread across the country that ex-president Saddam Hussein had been captured alive near his hometown Tikrit, prolonged bursts of gun fire, automatic weapons, pistols and heavier calibres filled the air in Baghdad. "It's a great joy for the Iraqi people because a great dictator has been arrested," interim Governing Council member Mahmud Othman told AFP. In central Fardous Square, people threw old bank notes bearing Saddam's face into the air....

Iranians welcomed the arrest of Saddam Hoseyn, hoping that this would help restoring peace and stability to Iraq and an end to the Coalition occupation of the neighbouring nation. Mr. Hoseyn was captured in a remote farm, in the Takrit region, few minutes after midnight by a combination of American special forces and Kurd Peshmerga of Mr. Jalal Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, who is the present president of the American-installed Provisory Council of Iraq. "This is a good news for the people of Iraq, who suffered most from the ruthless rule of this dictator and...

CNN anchor now reports news conference due at 4 AM PST/7AM EST

SADDAM CAPTUREDTroops from the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team captured former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein without incident Dec. 13. Saddam was found hiding in a storehouse at a remote farmhouse near Tikrit, Iraq. U.S. forces capture Saddam Hussein at remote farmhouse near Tikrit, Iraq WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2003 -- “We got him.” U.S. Ambassador L. Paul Bremer II announced in Baghdad, Iraq, at about 7 a.m. this morning. “Saddam Hussein was captured Saturday, Dec. 13, at about 8:30 p.m. local time, in a cellar in the town of Adwar, which is about 15 kilometers south of Tikrit.”...

The Iraqi Governing Council might ask the U.S. military to expel an anti-Iran paramilitary group from Iraq, but the council has no plans to hand them over to Iran, where they are wanted for terrorist attacks, two Iraqi officials said Friday. Earlier this week, the U.S.-appointed council decided to expel by year's end the 3,800 members of the Mujahedeen Khalq, listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union. "We might ask the Americans because they have the military capabilities," Governing Council member Dara Noor al-Din said. "We don't have an army and the police force isn't...

<p>The U.S. secret weapon against Iran is kept behind high gates here, where several thousand fighters of the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People's Warriors, live in a sprawling military base guarded by U.S. troops.</p> <p>Although Khalis is just 60 miles north of Baghdad, two large statues of Iranian lions decorate the base's interior gateway, and an Iranian flag snaps in the wind.</p>

The US army came under renewed pressure on Wednesday over its conduct in a battle at the weekend in the central Iraqi town of Samarra, as Iran's senior religious leader accused the American forces of "a savage massacre" in which 54 locals were reportedly killed. The battle, in which US forces attempting to deliver new Iraqi currency to two Samarran banks were ambushed by a small force of insurgents - said by US officials to have been dressed as fighters from Saddam Hussein's fedayeen militia - has led to wildly differing accounts from American military officials and local witnesses. Hospital...

A majority of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council has decided to support an American plan to select a provisional government through regional caucuses despite objections from the country's most powerful Shiite Muslim cleric, according to several council members. The council's stance, the result of intense lobbying over the past few days by the U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, could result in a dramatic showdown with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who has insisted that a provisional government be chosen through a national election. If the council persists in supporting the American plan, many in Iraq's Shiite majority, who regard the...

<p>THOSE making Iraq policy in Washington appear to have found an easy way to explain, and explain away, whatever snag that their changing and contradictory plans may hit at any given time. It consists of one phrase: the Sistani logjam. This refers to Grand Ayatollah Ali Muhammad Sistani, the primus inter pares of Shi'ite clerics in Najaf.</p>

LEADING IRAQI RELIGIOUS LEADERS CALLS FOR DIRECT ELECTIONS BAGHDAD, 27 Nov. (IPS) Two senior Iraqi clerics from the Shiite majority called for general elections to and an elected Iraqi administration independent from the American Administration led by Mr. Paul Bremmer, Mr. Jalal Talabani, chairman of the US-backed Governing Council announced. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani (the highest authority for the Iraqi Shi’ites) wants full elections for all Iraqi administrative and political bodies to be formed in the future", Mr. Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of (Iraqi) Kurdistan was quoted by the French news agency AFP as having told reporters....

Democracy in Iraq Depends on Iran By Alireza Jafarzadeh 20/11/2003 The recent wave of attacks in Iraq, including the deadly bombing in Nasiriyah, has drawn attention to the involvement of foreign governments in that country. By far, Iran tops the list. The question of who is behind the attacks notwithstanding, what is of paramount importance is to recognise what is the most dominant force laying the social, religious and political grounds for such attacks in Iraq. Who is the prime beneficiary of these attacks and continued chaos in Iraq? On August 24, the top US administrator in Iraq, L. Paul...

Iran greets Iraqi Shia militant By Sadeq Saba BBC Iranian analyst The Iranian Government has invited a militant Iraqi Shia leader, Moqtada Sadr, to the country despite warnings from the US that Iran should stop meddling in Iraqi affairs. The US is concerned about Iranian influence in Iraq The official Iranian news agency said Mr Sadr was visiting Iran to take part in a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic regime. But there are far wider political implications. Mr Sadr is one of the most radical Shia clerics in Iraq.

What Iraqis Really Think September 10, 2003 The Wall Street Journal Karl Zinsmeister America, some say, is hobbled in its policies toward Iraq by not knowing much about what Iraqis really think. Are they on the side of radical Islamists? What kind of government would they like? What is their attitude toward the U.S.? Do the Shiites hate us? Could Iraq become another Iran under the ayatollahs? Are the people in the Sunni triangle the real problem? Up to now we've only been able to guess. We've relied on anecdotal temperature-takings of the Iraqi public, and have been at the...

Iraqi Cabinet Takes Oath of Office September 03, 2003 Reuters Washington Post BAGHDAD - Iraq's first line-up of ministers to replace the ousted government of Saddam Hussein formally took office on Wednesday, vowing to lead the country to democratic self-rule. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, outgoing head of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council that is to supervise the ministries in consultation with Iraq's U.S.-led occupiers, described their appointment as a step toward meeting the needs of Iraqis neglected under Saddam. "Exceptional effort is demanded from every minister, and that he work for the rebuilding of Iraq, and do all that is needed to meet...