[New York Post] Amir Taheri - Iran's state-run media have confirmed that last month's fighting in Basra, Iraq, was no spontaneous "uprising." Rather, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tried to seize control of Iraq's second-largest city using local Shiite militias. Tehran spent vast sums persuading local Iraqi security personnel to switch sides or to remain neutral. The Revolutionary Guard's Quds (Jerusalem) unit, which is in charge of "exporting the Islamic Revolution," used units known as Special Groups, consisting of individuals recruited from among the estimated 1.8 million Iraqi refugees who spent more than two decades in Iran during Saddam Hussein's reign and returned to Iraq shortly after his fall. After more than a week of fighting, the Iran-backed side lost more than 600 men, with more than 1,000 injured. The Iraqi government's new Iraqi Security Force lost 88 dead and 122 wounded.
2008-04-11 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive