According to British media, the US is set to attack Iranian military facilities. DEBKAfileÂ’s military sources add that the USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Force is heading for the Persian Gulf.War tensions in the Middle East have shot up - not only over the signals flashing between Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, but also on the US-Iranian front in Iraq in the wake of rising in violence around the Basra conflagration.
Tuesday, April 8, US Iraq commander, Gen. David Petraeus and ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, will stress in their report to Congress that Iran is waging war on America in Iraq, say sources in Washington, London and Baghdad. This emerged strongly last week, when US intelligence learned that Iran had intervened directly in the Iraqi governmentÂ’s crackdown on renegade militias in Basra and southern Iraq, by directing and provisioning those militias through the Revolutionary GuardsÂ’ al Qods Brigades.
Official sources in London predict that IranÂ’s intervention against the American effort to stabilize Iraq may well prompt a US attack on the military installations in Iran which are orchestrating the interference.
| Better to be crafty and deniable about it. Mysterious explosions, untimely deaths of senior Iranian officials, 'accidents' galore. There's more than one way to handle this ... |
DEBKAfileÂ’s military sources report that Moscow has dropped its two nickels into the rising war alarm. In the last two weeks, Russian military and intelligence officials have been leaking claims of intensified American military movements around Iranian shores. Iran is certain to come up in Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir PutinÂ’s farewell talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi Sunday, along with other controversial business, such as MoscowÂ’s objections to NATOÂ’s eastern expansion and US missile shield in East Europe.
Saturday, US defense secretary Robert Gates turned up in Oman, the site of big American air bases, for talks with Sultan Qaboos. He then flew straight back to Washington. While Gates insisted to correspondents aboard his plane that the US is committed to a diplomatic solution for IranÂ’s covert nuclear program, the surprise visit struck sparks in the already fraught regional atmosphere, particularly as it followed on the heels of US Vice President Dick CheneyÂ’s talks in Oman two weeks ago.
DEBKAfileÂ’s Middle East sources sum up how Tehran and Damascus read these events and the picture they have built up of WashingtonÂ’s intentions as combined with IsraelÂ’s military steps:
1. US is preparing to attack the Iranian military installations linked to subversion in Iraq. The operation will widen out into strikes on the Islamic RepublicÂ’s suspect nuclear sites.
2. Israel will use the chance for a concurrent attack on Syria.
3. Israel will attack HizballahÂ’s strongholds in Lebanon.
4. A broad, coordinated US-Israeli offensive will be mounted against Iran, Syria and Hizballah.
Iran and Syria view IsraelÂ’s four-day home defense exercise against missile attack, conventional or non-conventional, beginning Sunday, as setting the stage for these attacks.
Both believe Washington and Jerusalem are in close military step. Neither is reassured by soothing statements from prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Barak that Israel does not seek violent confrontation - especially when the US administration is withholding all comment. Hence the high state of preparedness ordered by the jittery governments in Tehran, Damascus and Beirut.