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| Iraq | |
| Iranian Weapons for New Batch of Iraqi Shiite Terrorists | |
| 2006-05-16 | |
| In the past two weeks, Iran has been pumping into Iraq two types of extra-lethal weapons in very large quantities. They have already taken their toll in the shooting down of two military helicopters - one American and one British – and an estimated 19 deaths of US military personnel. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources estimate the delivery to Iraqi insurgents as consisting of around 1,000 SA-7 Strela ground-air missiles made in Iran, and a very large quantity of a newly-developed roadside bomb, loaded with compressed gas instead of ball bearings and cartridges, to magnify their blast and explosive power.
The new bombs, developed jointly by IranÂ’s Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanese Hizballah, have already gone into service with the Shiite terrorists on the Lebanese border with Israel. Israeli military sources say it is only a matter of time before the deadly roadside bombs, already used in Iraq, will also reach Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In Iraq, the new weaponry has had three major effects: 1. The guerrilla-terrorist groups which received the shoulder-carried, highly mobile Strela missiles have scored three hits in fourteen days. On May 6, they fired a missile from one of BasraÂ’s crowded alleys and downed a British military helicopter, killing all four military personnel aboard. Sunday, May 14, Iraqi insurgents shot down an American helicopter, killing its two crewmen over Yussifiya, inside the Triangle of Death south of Baghdad. Until now, the insurgent forces fighting the coalition consisted mostly of Baathists, Islamist and al Qaeda. The only Shiite enemy was the radical Mogtada Sadr and his Mahdi Army. The appearance of the new Shiite insurgents is a dread milestone in the Iraq war, one which has caught US and UK commanders by surprise and unprepared for the steep rise in troop losses. DEBKAfileÂ’s Exclusive Iraq sources offer some information on the new groups. One is located north of Baghdad and calls itself Brigades of the Imam Kazim. Another, called Brigades of Imam Ali, claimed the attack on April 27 in Nasiriya in which one of their new roadside bombs killed two Italian troops. In the Rostumiya region south of Baghdad, a Shiite group called Brigades of the Imam Hadi has begun operating. Our sources report that this group has been firing Katyusha rockets at American bases in the region, similar to the mortar attack directed at a British base in Amara Monday, May 15. After each attack, these unknown quantities issue bulletins describing their actions, some accompanied by video footage from the scene of action. The blackout was imposed on the new Shiite groups in the absence of American or British intelligence on who they and their commanders are, how they operate and what makes them tick. Research must start from square one to find out whether they are being controlled from Tehran, some Iraqi Shiite faction or elements which chanced to lay hands on the new-fangled weaponry. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 A major weak point of Iran is that they only have two or three brigades of loyal Revolutionary Guards. The rest are conscripts who are "unreliable". For this reason, they are always shuttling those loyal brigades around the country as enforcers. This is why two different airplane crashes both took out a substantial number of RGs. Therefore, a reasonable alternative would be to increase this attrition rate among their most loyal personnel. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-05-16 14:12 |
| #2 I say send the weapons back to Iran. The M² are not as secure a they appear. The grip the M² have on Iran is tight but the control is very brittle and requires lots of force, money and repression. Make the M² pay for their continous acts of war. Drag them into the UNSC over them. Air their dirty acts in the light were everyone even the thickest and ignorant can see them. Prove that any act we carry out is rightous,justified and legal.Get on with it. |
| Posted by: SPoD 2006-05-16 13:42 |
| #1 Debka, more often than not, contains at least a grain of truth. The fact that there have been 3 combat helicopters shot down in one month leads me to believe that there is more than a grain of truth. One of the US choppers was apparently supporting TF 145. That Kiowa crew were not rookies, and the chopper had the latest jamming and EW gear. Now there is evidence from a weapons cache that oxygen tanks were found...further substantiating Debka claims. I have no idea what the administration is thinking. One of the key failures of the Johnson execution of the Vietnam War were the sanctuaries in Cambodia and Laos, and the safe zones around munitions plants in Hanoi, and the port of Haiphong. I fully realize that there was fear that bombing in these areas could drag the PRC, or even the USSR into the conflict. However, the bottom line is that by making that decision the Johnson administration doomed 1000s of US soldiers, airmen and marines for no reason. That decision contributed to the malaise in the US forces and the American public...and ultimately doomed the US effort in SE Asia. There is a loose parallel in the Iran. If we are willing to put up with Iran providing safehaven to terrorists killing US and British troops, providing hi-tech anit-aircraft missles, and enhanced IEDs that will affect our ability to wage war in Iraq. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-05-16 12:53 |