http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2046392005
Iran supplied weapons that killed 8 Britons GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN CHIEF NEWS CORRESPONDENT Key points Iran raises wrath of British over death of troops Eight UK soldiers revealed to have been killed by Iran-supplied weapons Agents and troops from Iran have also been operating inside Iraq, it is revealed Key quote "We think it has come from Lebanese Hezbollah, via Iran. I think the Iranians woke up one day and said 'the boys in the south [of Iraq] could use this." - Anonymous British officer Story in full IRAN supplied Iraqi insurgents with the explosive devices used to kill eight British soldiers this year, the UK government said yesterday. In an extraordinary briefing that marked a major change of policy towards the Tehran regime, a senior British diplomat confirmed that Iran's Revolutionary Guard was supporting Shiite fighters in southern Iraq. Although the Ministry of Defence refused to give details of the devices - which Iran has previously supplied to Hezbollah in Lebanon - they are believed to involve an armour-piercing projectile triggered by an infrared controller which is capable of circumventing previously successful British counter-measures. The accusations came as John Reid, the defence secretary, warned Iraqi insurgents would launch more "vicious" attacks on coalition forces and civilians ahead of a general election for a new government in December. Iranian intelligence agents have been operating inside Iraq since the end of the war in 2003, as have elements of the Revolutionary Guard. Two years ago, a senior British officer in Iraq told The Scotsman Iran was funding and training insurgents, but those claims were played down by the MoD and the Foreign Office. Since then, the government has handled Tehran with kid gloves, despite frequent provocations, including the seizure of eight British servicemen on the Shatt-al-Arab waterway last year. But yesterday's decision to go public with claims of Iran's involvement in Iraq indicates it has finally lost patience with the Tehran regime, particularly over its refusal to abandon its controversial nuclear programme. Iran arming the insurgents is regarded as its way of warning Britain it will not be bullied into backing down. "It would be entirely natural that they would want to send a message, 'don't mess with us'. It would not be outside the policy parameters of Tehran," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The deadly new explosive devices are understood to have been supplied to an element of the Mahdi Army, which owes its allegiance to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Similar devices have previously been used by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, and the British official pointed out they required specific expertise to use. "We think it has come from Lebanese Hezbollah, via Iran," he said. "I think the Iranians woke up one day and said 'the boys in the south [of Iraq] could use this." Eight British soldiers have died in roadside bomb attacks in Iraq this year. The most recent death was that of Major Matthew Bacon, who died in Basra when his armoured Land Rover was hit on 11 September. His death came six days after two fusiliers were killed by a bomb which hit their patrol near to the main Shaibah base outside Basra. In July, three members of the Staffordshire regiment were killed by a blast in the flashpoint town of al-Amarah, close to the Iranian border and the scene of frequent attacks on UK forces. The other two deaths were in May - also in al-Amarah. British military sources and senior officials in Iraq's interior ministry have previously voiced concern over Iran's interference in Iraq and have made their feelings known to Tehran. This summer, British diplomats lodged a formal protest with Tehran after the interception of an arms cache that had been smuggled across the border from Iran. British forces are now braced for further attacks and the official warned there was likely to be an increase in violence ahead of Iraq's constitutional referendum on 15 October and elections in December. "That is what the security forces are preparing for. There are a lot of people who don't want this process to succeed," he said. Mr Reid warned that Islamic insurgents were trying to spark a civil war by murdering scores of Shiites, who constitute the majority in the country. "As things get steadily better in Iraq, there will be a period during which the terrorists will become more fanatic, more vicious and we have already seen it," he said. To further complicate the situation for British forces, Iran has reopened its border with Iraq to allow Iranian pilgrims to visit the Shiite Muslim shrine cities of Kerbala and Najaf. Iran closed the border last year, saying it was too dangerous for pilgrims, but thousands of devout Iranians still braved the mine- strewn and bandit-ridden borderlands to visit the shrines. United States officials have accused Iran of using the pilgrim trails to send arms, agents and funds to stir up anti-US violence among Shiites in Iraq, an allegation strongly denied by Tehran. During yesterday's briefing. the diplomat revealed that Iran - the heart of the Shia Muslim world - may be attempting to foment further instability by providing some assistance to Sunni Muslim insurgents who have links with al-Qaeda and who have been blamed for trying to ignite a civil war with the Shias. Foreign Office officials say such actions, while apparently illogical, would be in keeping with previous Iranian actions. "There is some evidence that the Iranians are in contact with Sunni groups. I don't think it is for a benign purpose," the official said. "If part of the aim was to tie down the coalition in Iraq, it would be entirely consistent with supporting those groups." Iran's Revolutionary Guard is a military organisation separate from the regular armed forces and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the new Iranian president, is a former commander. There have been suggestions the Revolutionary Guard acted independently of the previous regime but the official would not say whether Britain believed it was now acting on the Iranian government's orders. He also disclosed that the trial of the former dictator Saddam Hussein, which had been due to start this month, was likely to be put off until after the elections. He said that the delay was not for political reasons but because practical arrangements - such as the provision of bullet-proof screens and witness protection programmes - had yet to be put in place. "I think there are some logistical problems," he said. "There are a lot of things they haven't got round to yet. I wouldn't be surprised if it slipped a bit." ANALYSIS Softly, softly approach is over as Britain finally loses its patience IRAN has gone out of its way to stir up trouble in Iraq since the end of the war in 2003 and its involvement in the funding and training of insurgents has been common knowledge in military and diplomatic circles. Its involvement has ranged from the supply of weapons and explosives to the deployment of intelligence agents inside the country. Officials in Iraq's interior ministry have regularly accused Iran of direct involvement in terrorist activity. But it has also used more subtle tactics: when it raised the price of copper in the months after the war ended, British troops noted an upsurge in the theft of underground electrical cables in Basra, which triggered frequent power cuts and fuelled discontent. Frustration with Tehran's meddling was first voiced publicly in July 2003, when Lieutenant Colonel Mark Castle - then commanding the King's Own Scottish Borderers in Iraq - told The Scotsman that Tehran was funding and training insurgents. "The Foreign Office position has been quite softly, softly to Iran, but, on the ground, we are seeing a lot of attempts to place Iranian- funded people on committees and large sums of money coming over the Iranian border," he said at the time. "The conclusion you have to draw from this is that there is some sort of organised attempt to undermine what we are doing here." Although subsequent events have borne out Lt Col Castle's analysis, both the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence were quick to distance themselves from his remarks and the low-key British handling of Iran over the past two years has been in marked contrast to America's frequently-voiced frustrations. But Tehran's recent behaviour has stretched British patience to breaking point and yesterday's decision to go public with these accusations reflects the frustration felt within the Foreign Office. The senior official who conducted yesterday's briefing suggested that Iran's decision to supply insurgents with a new explosive device was directly linked to the ongoing negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme. However, it may be equally plausible to suggest that Britain's decision to go public with its accusations reflects a toughening up of its own negotiating position and is intended to send out its own "Don't mess with us" message to Tehran. Despite provocation, including the seizure of eight servicemen last year, Britain has tried to maintain a public semblance of civility towards Iran, while Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, has been at the forefront of European attempts to persuade the Tehran regime to abandon the enrichment of uranium in return for access to civil nuclear technology. With the election of the hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that initiative appears to have hit the buffers, which may explain why Britain has finally decided to give vent to its frustrations. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpgUKB/pzNLAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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