Military team looks for proof of Iran's links with Iraq rebels

Scotland on Sunday via Iran Focus ^ | 2005 Oct 9 | Brian Brady

[Wiz]

A TEAM of military specialists has been dispatched to Iraq to compile a comprehensive dossier of evidence that "Iranian elements" have been arming insurgents engaged in a brutal struggle with British forces around Basra.

The Foreign Office last night confirmed that experts were engaged in an intensive operation to back up growing concerns that Iran is "interfering" to deadly effect in efforts to pacify Iraq and restore democracy to the war-torn country.

The insistence that Britain is determined to prove Iran is providing sophisticated equipment to perpetrators of attacks that have claimed the lives of at least eight British soldiers in the past five months is a significant development in the escalating war of words between London and Tehran.

Ministers and military officials also fear that a continuing escalation in the violence against their forces in Iraq could lengthen the British presence in the country at a time when they are faced with further commitments elsewhere in the world.

Diplomatic sources also confirmed last night that an operation in Basra to seize 12 men, including members of the Iraqi police and the chief of the city's state-run electricity company, was directly related to the wider operation to target supporters of insurgent fighters.

A number of those detained are believed to have been supporters of the rebel Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who oversees the militia that has risen up twice against US and British forces over the past year.

"In the past two months, eight multi-national force soldiers and six coalition members have been killed by terrorists in Basra province," said Brigadier John Lorimer. "This terrorism must be stopped."

Scotland on Sunday revealed last month that the British military was convinced Iran was to blame for the sophistication of weapons used against troops in the Basra area.

[ncountylee]

But still exporting arms and trusting their word?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1499288/posts

[Uncle Jaque]

If this short, squat, shify-eyed Muqtada Al Sadr dude is not dealt with appropriately and soon, I have a feeling that he will sooner or later end up being the "Sha of Iraq".

And if we let that happen, then shame on us!