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Iranian-backed Iraqi opposition forces have crossed into northern Iraq
from Iran with the aim of securing the frontier in the event of war,
according to senior Iranian officials.
The forces, numbering up to 5,000 troops, with some heavy equipment,
are nominally under the command of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, a
prominent Iraqi Shia Muslim opposition leader who has been based in Iran
since 1980 and lives in Tehran.
A US State Department official said he was aware of reports that part
of Ayatollah Hakim's Badr brigade had crossed into northern Iraq but
declined further comment. Analysts close to the administration of President
George W. Bush said the US was concerned about the intentions of this new
element in an increasingly complicated patchwork of forces in northern Iraq.
Turkey has long had a limited military presence in northern Iraq, and
US special forces began moving into the region several months ago. The Badr
brigade has been trained and equipped by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and
could be regarded as a proxy force of the Iranian government.
Iranian officials insist that force's role in the north is defensive
but its presence will exacerbate the concerns of the US and especially the
Arab world that military intervention in Iraq will lead to a permanent
disintegration of the country. Through inserting a proxy force, Iran is
underlining that it cannot be ignored in future discussions over Iraq's
make-up.
Ayatollah Hakim's forces had previously been based in southern Iran,
close to Iraq. Two months ago they began moving into the area of northern
Iraq governed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two Kurdish
parties that rule an area the size of Switzerland outside Baghdad's control.
A senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named, said the
presence of Ayatollah Hakim's troops was defensive and aimed at countering a
possible attack on Iran by the People's Mujahideen Organisation (MKO), an
Iranian opposition group based in Iraq and strongly supported by President
Saddam Hussein.
Another official said the Badr force had moved into an area near
Darbandikhan, a depopulated and rugged stretch of hills and ravines about 15
miles from the closest point on the Iranian border.
The MKO used Iraqi territory to mount attacks on Iran during the
1980-88 war between Iran and Iraq. The Kurdish parties controlling northern
Iraq have also expressed fears that Mr Hussein would try to use the MKO
against them in the event of a US-led invasion of Iraq.
Ayatollah Hakim is the head of the Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), a mainly Shia Muslim group that fought in the
failed 1991 uprising against Baghdad in southern Iraq. More recently Sciri
has taken part in talks between the Iraqi opposition and the US.
His office in Tehran denied that the Badr brigade had moved into
northern Iraq but said Sciri had maintained forces in that region for
several years, gathered from Iraqi Shia who had fled the Iraqi regime. A
representative of the PUK also denied there had been a recent movement
across the border but confirmed a presence of Sciri forces.
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Diversification Of Dangers Maru
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You have no right to be here.
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