Iranian intelligence officer among militants killed in Iraq

[Jolie Rouge]

As General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker were testifying in front of Congress yesterday about Iran seeking to "create a Hezbollah-like force" in Iraq, US forces killed an Iranian Intelligence officer in a raid in Samarra.
US forces also killed an Al Qaeda leader in the same raid!



Iranian intelligence officer among militants killed in Iraq
Posted : Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:06:00 GMT

Baghdad - An Iranian intelligence officer and an al-Qaeda terrorist network leader in Salahaddin province were killed in a US raid in the city of Samarra, while three people were killed and 13 wounded in another US attack in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City, sources said Tuesday. Twelve militants, including the reported Iranian intelligence officer and the al-Qaeda leader Abu Obeid al-Jazaeri, were killed in the US raid carried out Monday in Samarra, 125 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, in Salahaddin province, according to an official report.

The unnamed intelligence officer was carrying an Iranian passport, but the report gave no further details.

The al-Jazaeri's wife was also killed in the operation.

In Sadr City, US soldiers raided neighbourhoods during the early hours of Tuesday, killing three and injuring 13, as US aircraft launched strikes during the arrest of some Mahdi Army militants, a witness told independent Voices of Iraq news agency.

Qassem al-Mudallal, director of al-Imam Ali hospital in Sadr City, said two bodies and 10 wounded were received during the early hours of Tuesday, while Weiam Ismail, director of Sadr hospital, said one body and three wounded men were received by the hospital.

The Mahdi Army, also known as Mahdi Militia or Jaish al Mahdi, was formed by Shiite cleric and leader Moqtada al-Sadr in 2003.

A member of al-Sadr's office said on condition of anonymity that the US troops stormed the house of a key Mahdi Army member but did not find him.

The US military did not comment on the incident.

On Tuesday morning, armed groups attacked an Iraqi army company in the village of Mekheisa in Abi Sayda district in Baquba, killing three soldiers and seriously wounding another, Voices of Iraq reported, citing an official security source.

Mekheisa, an al-Qaeda stronghold in Diyala province, is considered a hotbed of terrorists from other Arab countries and Afghanistan, who use the village's undergrowth as refuge, the source added.

Villages in Abi Sayda have recently witnessed several reconciliation meetings among Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders to fight terrorist groups.

Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, is some 60 kilometres north of Baghdad.

In another act of violence, four Iraqi policemen were killed in two separate attacks Tuesday in Mosul city in Nineveh province, Voices of Iraq quoted General Abdul-Kareem al-Juburi, the Nineveh police operations chief as saying.

He added that a group of gunmen opened fire at a patrol vehicle in the area of Karama in east Mosul, 400 kilometres north of Baghdad,

Other gunmen killed a policeman in Yarmuk in western Mosul in a drive-by attack, he said.

In other news, an explosive device went off near a police patrol on the main road linking Kirkuk to Mosul, wounding two policemen and destroying their vehicle, a Kirkuk security source told Voices of Iraq.

In the predominately Shiite city of Basra, 550 kilometres south of Baghdad, unknown gunmen killed an aide to top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, an official source from the city provincial council said Tuesday.

"Unknown gunmen stormed Monday night the house of Sayed Hussein al-Husaini in the Jiniynah neighbourhood in north Basra and killed him, the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity," the source told Voices of Iraq.

Al-Husaini, an al-Sistani representative in Basra, is also the Imam of the Shiite Mahtah mosque.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/105721.html




Iran's Secret Plan For Mayhem
By ELI LAKE

WASHINGTON — Iran is supporting both Sunni and Shiite terrorists in the Iraqi civil war, according to secret Iranian documents captured by Americans in Iraq.

The news that American forces had captured Iranians in Iraq was widely reported last month, but less well known is that the Iranians were carrying documents that offered Americans insight into Iranian activities in Iraq.

An American intelligence official said the new material, which has been authenticated within the intelligence community, confirms "that Iran is working closely with both the Shiite militias and Sunni Jihadist groups." The source was careful to stress that the Iranian plans do not extend to cooperation with Baathist groups fighting the government in Baghdad, and said the documents rather show how the Quds Force — the arm of Iran's revolutionary guard that supports Shiite Hezbollah, Sunni Hamas, and Shiite death squads — is working with individuals affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunna.

Another American official who has seen the summaries of the reporting affiliated with the arrests said it comprised a "smoking gun." "We found plans for attacks, phone numbers affiliated with Sunni bad guys, a lot of things that filled in the blanks on what these guys are up to," the official said.

One of the documents captured in the raids, according to two American officials and one Iraqi official, is an assessment of the Iraq civil war and new strategy from the Quds Force. According to the Iraqi source, that assessment is the equivalent of "Iran's Iraq Study Group," a reference to the bipartisan American commission that released war strategy recommendations after the November 7 elections. The document concludes, according to these sources, that Iraq's Sunni neighbors will step up their efforts to aid insurgent groups and that it is imperative for Iran to redouble efforts to retain influence with them, as well as with Shiite militias.

http://www.nysun.com/article/46032

[Jolie Rouge]

Bergner: Rocket associated with Iran
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer
33 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - A fatal attack launched two days ago against the sprawling headquarters base of the American military in Iraq was carried out with a 240 mm rocket — a type of weapon provided to Shiite extremists by Iran, a U.S. general said Thursday.

One person was killed and 11 were wounded during the "indirect fire" attack Tuesday against Camp Victory, which includes the headquarters of Multinational Forces-Iraq.

The attack was overshadowed by congressional appearances by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker in Washington.

But such an attack with a sophisticated weapon against a nearly impregnable compound — far less vulnerable than the Green Zone in the heart of the capital — sends a strong message to the Americans that nowhere in Iraq are they safe, even in the nerve center of the U.S. mission.

It represents a major confrontation between the U.S. and armed Shiite groups the Americans insist are supported by Iran.

Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said the rocket was launched from a populated area in the Rasheed district of west Baghdad, which he said was infiltrated by the Mahdi Army militia of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Bergner said Shiite groups "have received" such weapons "from Iranian sources in the past" and "used them against coalition forces." A 240 mm rocket was fired against a U.S. base south of the capital in mid-August.

"The Iranian... rocket is the only 240-milimeter rocket found or fired in Iraq to date, and Jaish al-Mahdi is the only group known to fire that rocket," Bergner said, referring to the Mahdi Army by its Arabic name.

Camp Victory, a huge area located near Baghdad International Airport, has occasionally come under fire, but attacks with such a large number of casualties and with such sophisticated weapons are rare.

On Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected the congressional testimony of the top U.S. officials in Iraq accusing Iran of interfering in its war-torn neighbor.

In an interview on Iranian state television, Ahmadinejad said Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker raised allegations of Iranian meddling solely because of the political debate within the United States over the war in Iraq.

"Iran has no need to interfere in Iraq. The Iraqi government and nation are close friends of Iran," he said.

Bergner insisted the U.S. was certain that such rockets were of Iranian origin based on their color and markings on fragments. He said Shiite extremist leaders under U.S. detention had acknowledged that Iranian Quds Force operatives were providing 240 mm rockets to Shiite militias.

Last month, al-Sadr announced a freeze of operations by the Mahdi Army to give time to reorganize the force.

"There are indications that some of his followers are fulfilling that pledge of honor," Bergner said. "We have seen other indications of others who are not fulfilling the commitment he made. We know there are some that are not operating within the bounds of his guidance."

Bergner said the victims of Tuesday's rocket attack were a mix of American military personnel, other coalition troops and civilian contractors. The fatality was a civilian contractor from a third country, meaning neither American nor Iraqi, he said.

Also Thursday, the U.S. military said a joint three-day operation between Iraqi troops and U.S. Special Forces netted 80 prisoners and killed three suspects in the Hamrin Ridge and Diyala River Valley areas of eastern Iraq.

Among those captured were four suspected al-Qaida in Iraq terror cell leaders, the military said in a statement.

The U.S. said Iraqi troops also seized 40 AK-47 assault rifles and machine gun ammunition. More than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers took part in the operation, it said.

Meanwhile, violence continued in Baghdad, with Iraqi police saying six people were killed and 18 wounded when a bomb hidden under a parked car exploded in Sadr City. The bomb was apparently aimed at an American convoy, but missed its target — killing all civilians and setting shops in the area on fire, police said.

In eastern Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one person and injured two others, police also said.

And near Samarra, 60 miles north of the Iraqi capital, authorities said about 60 gunmen attacked a police station and ignited clashes with residents and police — leaving four assailants dead and two policemen wounded.

The attacks came despite the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began Thursday for Iraq's Sunni Muslims, and Friday for the country's majority Shiites. Tradition requires faithful to abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset during the monthlong observance.

The U.S. military issued a statement Thursday saying it had begun releasing between 50 and 80 Iraqi prisoners a day as a gesture during Ramadan.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070913/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=Amk6uC51nBghiZHjGFSWT2as0NUE

[Jolie Rouge]

Bomb kills Iraqi sheik who met with Bush
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
Thu Sep 13, 12:08 PM ET

BAGHDAD - The most prominent figure in a U.S.-backed revolt of Sunni sheiks against al-Qaida in Iraq was killed Thursday by a bomb planted near his home in Anbar province, 10 days after he met with President Bush, police and tribal leaders said.

Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha was leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, also known as the Anbar Awakening — an alliance of clans backing the Iraqi government and U.S. forces.

The death of the charismatic young sheik dealt a blow to American efforts to recruit tribal leaders to fight the terror network.

The White House, preparing for Bush's Iraq speech to the nation Thursday night, called his death an "unfortunate and outrageous act," but said it was not a setback because other sheiks have said the killing would not deter them from working with the United States against al-Qaida. It also said it believed al-Qaida in Iraq was responsible.

Abu Risha and two of his bodyguards were killed by a roadside bomb planted near the tribal leader's home in the provincial capital of Ramadi, said Col. Tareq Youssef, supervisor of Anbar police.

No group claimed responsibility for the assassination but suspicion fell on al-Qaida in Iraq, which U.S. officials say has suffered devastating setbacks in Anbar thanks to Abu Risha and his fellow sheiks.

"This is a tragic loss," said Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, in a statement released in Washington by his spokesman. "It's a terrible loss for Anbar province and all of Iraq. It shows how significant his importance was and it shows al-Qaida in Iraq remains a very dangerous and barbaric enemy. He was an organizing force that did help organize alliances and did help keep the various tribes together."

Petraeus went before Congress this week to testify about progress in Iraq, including the recent success in Anbar.

During a visit Sept. 3 to al-Asad Air Base, Bush hailed the courage of Abu Risha and others "who have made a decision to reject violence and murder in return for moderation and peace."

On Thursday, Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said Abu Risha "was one of the first to come forward to want to work with the United States to repel al-Qaida."

"Remember, al-Qaida was killing some of the sheiks' children and, in one instance, severed several heads from young children and put them in a cooler to deliver to the sheiks," Perino said. "This is the type of enemy that we're dealing with."

She said that while the death was not a setback to the U.S. efforts in Anbar, U.S. officials would "have to redouble our efforts to work with the local populations to get the support they need to prevent other such murders."

"There has been a complete shift in attitude over the past year or so and we have to capitalize on that," Perino said.

But two Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the matter, said the assassination could be a huge setback because it sends a chilling message about the consequences of cooperating with the U.S.

It was not the first time that Abu Risha has been targeted. A suicide bomber tried and failed to kill him on Feb. 19. That same day, gunmen ambushed a minivan on the main highway from Baghdad to Anbar and killed all 13 passengers who were accused of opposing the largely Sunni al-Qaida in Iraq.

In June, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the lobby of Baghdad's Mansour Hotel during a meeting of U.S.-linked Sunni tribal leaders, killing 13 people and wounding 27. Among those killed was the former governor of Anbar and sheik of the al-Bu Nimir tribe, Fassal al-Guood — a key ally of Abu Risha. A day later, al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abu Risha had recently begun traveling with fewer bodyguards as the security situation improved in Anbar.

Within two hours of his death, Islamic extremist Web sites praised his killing. One called him "one of the biggest pigs of the Crusaders," in an apparent reference to U.S. forces in Iraq. Abu Risha would spend the holy month of Ramadan "in the pits of hell," another posting said.

Many Ramadi residents reacted with shock and sadness, calling Abu Risha a "hero" who helped pacify their city.

"We were able to reopen our shops and send our children back to school," said Alaa Abid, who owns an auto parts store in Ramadi. "Now we're afraid that the black days of al-Qaida will return to our city."

A senior member of Abu Risha's group, Sheik Jubeir Rashid, called the assassination a "criminal act" by al-Qaida, and said some of Abu Risha's security guards were being questioned.

"It is a major blow to the council, but we are determined to strike back and continue our work," he said. "Such an attack was expected, but it will not deter us."

Abu Risha, who was 36 or 37, lived within the walls of a massive compound that housed several villas that were home to him and his extended family. The compound was guarded by a tank, and was across the street from the largest U.S. military base in Ramadi. Within the walls were camels, other animals and palm trees, which he spent time showing to visitors.

He spent days meeting with tribal sheiks, discussing the fate of Anbar and al-Qaida. He was constantly busy, with lines of people waiting to speak to him, and took endless calls on his cell phone.

He smoked profusely and drank endless glasses of sweet tea. He carried a pistol, usually stuck in a holster strapped around his waist, and dressed in traditional flowing robes and headdresses.

Abu Risha was part of a group of younger sheiks whose power grew when their elders fled Anbar after other, more senior sheiks were assassinated.

He harbored a personal grudge against al-Qaida, who he said had killed several of his close relatives. He knew the group would keep trying to kill him, but that did not appear to bother him.

Rashid said the fatal bombing took place at 3:30 p.m. as Abu Risha was returning home.

A Ramadi police officer said Abu Risha had received a group of poor people at his home earlier in the day, a charitable gesture to mark the beginning of Ramadan. The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said authorities believed the bomb was planted by one of the visitors.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said that after the first blast that killed Abu Risha, a car bomb exploded nearby.

"The car bomb had been rigged just in case the roadside bomb missed his convoy," Khalaf said. There were no casualties from the car bomb, he added.

After the bombing, police announced a state of emergency in Ramadi and set up additional checkpoints throughout the city, Rashid said. Another colleague of Abu Risha, Hamid al-Hayis, said a seven-day mourning period would be observed.

Anbar police were investigating the attack, and the Interior Ministry would send a committee to assist, Khalaf added.

The Interior Ministry swiftly ordered plans for a monument built to honor Abu Risha as a "martyr," Khalaf said. It would be build either at the explosion site, or at the center of Ramadi, he said.

In other violence Thursday, police said six people were killed and 18 wounded when a bomb under a parked car exploded near the Sadr City section of Baghdad. The bomb was apparently aimed at a U.S. convoy but missed its target, police said.

In eastern Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one person and injured two others, police also said.

Near Samarra, 60 miles north of the Iraqi capital, authorities said about 60 gunmen attacked a police station and ignited clashes with residents and police — leaving four assailants dead and two policemen wounded.

A U.S. general, meanwhile, said a fatal attack against the headquarters garrison of the American military in Iraq was carried out using a 240 mm rocket — a type of weapon that he claimed Iran provided to Shiite extremists.

One person was killed and 11 were wounded in the attack Tuesday against Camp Victory, which includes the headquarters of Multinational Forces-Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said the rocket was launched from a populated area in the Rasheed district of west Baghdad, which he said was infiltrated by breakaway factions of the Mahdi Army militia of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Displaying a twisted piece of shrapnel from the attack, Bergner said military experts had so far determined that its markings and manufacture were "consistent with" Iranian produced munitions.

"Can I hold up a piece of fragment today that has a specific marking on it that traces this back to Iranian making?" he said. "At this moment I can't do that, but explosive experts — as I said — are still analyzing all the different fragments that they have gathered."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070913/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=AjVQEfnpTvufsQukYZg6qjys0NUE