http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1969529/posts
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QUOTE:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1969529/posts?page=361#361
blog:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/02/mugniyah_behind_esta.php
“Mugniyah behind establishment of Mahdi Army”
By BILL ROGGIOFebruary 23, 2008 11:31 PM
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “Imad Mugniyah, the senior Hezbollah military commander who was killed in Syria earlier this month, helped form the Mahdi Army, the military wing of the radical Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al Sadr, according to an Iraqi intelligence official. He was described as a “co-founder” of the Mahdi Army, Naharnet reported, based on a translation from the Iraqi daily Al Zaman.
Mugniyah helped form the Mahdi Army after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003. He recruited from the Shia communities in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and then sent the recruits to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley for training. “The 300 fighters were trained on the use of assault rifles, booby-trapping and kidnapping operations,” the unnamed intelligence official told Al Zaman.
Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Qods Force. Click image to view.
Once in Lebanon, the Mahdi Army recruits were sent to bases run by Brigadier General Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Qods Force, the foreign special operations branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. Hezbollah operates numerous bases in the Bekaa Valley, under the supervision of Syrian intelligence.
The links between Hezbollah and the Mahdi Army are not new. Mahdi Army fighters have admitted to training in inside Lebanon with Hezbollah, while Muqtada al Sadr also admitted his forces trained with Hezbollah and mirrored their tactics.
“We have formal links with Hezbollah, we do exchange ideas and discuss the situation facing Shiites in both countries,” Sadr told The Independent in August 2007. “It is natural that we would want to improve ourselves by learning from each other. We copy Hezbollah in the way they fight and their tactics, we teach each other and we are getting better through this.” Sadr also said his fighters trained in Lebanon while the Mahdi Army leadership conferred with Hezbollah over Israel’s plans in the Middle East.
Hezbollah is essentially the Lebanese branch of Iran’s Qods Force. Mugniyah was Hezbollah’s mastermind terrorist and also a senior leader in Qods Force.”
361 posted on 02/24/2008 2:30:41 AM PST by Cindy
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3510453,00.html
Iran confirms March 2 as start of Ahmadinejad’s landmark trip to Iraq
Published: 02.24.08, 11:45 / Israel News
Iran on Sunday set March 2 as the date for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s landmark visit to Iraq, in the first confirmation of the event from the Iranian side.
Earlier in the month, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari had said that the first ever visit by the head of state of the Islamic Republic would be March 2 and he would meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani in the course of his two day visit. (AP)