Free Republic

BAGHDAD - Iran's ambassador to Iraq on Saturday denounced U.S. military operations in Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City, saying they had led to the deaths of innocent people and threatened to aggravate an already tense situation. The comments by Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi came after police and hospital officials reported that 12 people had died in overnight clashes in Sadr City. U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by air power have largely blocked off the southern section of the sprawling district in a bid to prevent Shiite militia fighters led by the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr...

Reports in the Arabic media reveal the role of Iran in the current unrest in Iraq initiated by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr and his followers. On Tuesday, the London Arabic daily Al-Hayat noted in the previous two days there had been "repeated talk in the Governing Council of Iraq about the major Iranian role in the events that took place in the Iraqi Shiite cities," according to the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI. "The direct Iranian presence in the Shiite areas of Iraq in the political, security, and economic affairs can not be ignored anymore,"...

Tehran, April 12, IRNA -- Iran has denied receiving a written message from the United States, allegedly warning Tehran against interfering in Iraq's affairs, press reports said Monday. "Iran has not received any strong-worded letter, demanding that it give up interfering in Iraq's internal affairs," newspapers on Monday quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying. His statements came in reaction to reports published in several Arab newspapers, alleging that Washington had warned Tehran to steer clear of Iraq, which has seen an upsurge in violence in recent days. Top US officials have conceded that there was no evidence...

TEHRAN, April 9 (Mehr News Agency) -- A political analyst close to the Iraqi Governing Council said the order to expel Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, Iran’s charge d’affaires in Iraq, was a result of sharp differences between the Iraqi Interior Ministry and the coalition forces. The analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Mehr News Agency correspondent in Iraq that the decision was made entirely by U.S. officials, adding that relations between coalition forces and Iraqi Interior Minister Nuri Badran cooled after his recent visit to Iran. With fierce fighting between supporters of Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr and coalition...

This just in from a student inside of Iran... "Doc I have just got a report from a German based Persian Language website http://www.iran-emrooz.de discussing the role of the terrorist Mullahs of Iran in the recent Iraq unrests. The original article was also published in Al-Hayyat Arabic paper. I am going to translate some of it here for the readers of your thread; The Mullahs were fast to recognize interim governing council of Iraq but that doesn't mean they wanted to help Iraqis and the coalition forces. Their favorite in Iraq is to see the quick defeat of the USA...

Baghdad, April 7, IRNA -- Four Iranian pilgrims were killed and three others injured by US forces, the official in charge of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Affairs Organization in Kerbala announced Wednesday. A vehicle carrying 11 Iranian pilgrims enroute from Najaf to the holy city of Kerbala, was targeted by US military forces, Hossein Vaezi said regretting that the four passengers were killed and three others were injured. The Iraqi driver of the vehicle was also killed during the attack, he added. The bodies of those killed and the injured Iranian pilgrims are kept in al-Hussein hospital in Kerbala, the...