The
botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis
Exclusive Report: How a bid to kidnap Iranian security officials
sparked a diplomatic crisis
By Patrick Cockburn
04/03/07 "The
Independent" -- - A failed American attempt to
abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit
to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10
weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and
Marines.
Early on the morning of 11 January, helicopter-born US forces
launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison
office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured
five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of
being intelligence agents and still holds.
In reality the US attack had a far more ambitious objective, The
Independent has learned. The aim of the raid, launched without
informing the Kurdish authorities, was to seize two men at the
very heart of the Iranian security establishment.
Better understanding of the seriousness of the US action in
Arbil - and the angry Iranian response to it - should have led
Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence to realise that Iran
was likely to retaliate against American or British forces such
as highly vulnerable Navy search parties in the Gulf. The two
senior Iranian officers the US sought to capture were Mohammed
Jafari, the powerful deputy head of the Iranian National
Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the chief of
intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to
Kurdish officials.
The two men were in Kurdistan on an official visit during which
they met the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, and later saw
Massoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG), at his mountain headquarters overlooking Arbil.
"They were after Jafari," Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of
Massoud Barzani, told The Independent. He confirmed that the
Iranian office had been established in Arbil for a long time and
was often visited by Kurds obtaining documents to visit Iran.
"The Americans thought he [Jafari] was there," said Mr Hussein.
Mr Jafari was accompanied by a second, high-ranking Iranian
official. "His name was General Minojahar Frouzanda, the head of
intelligence of the Pasdaran [Iranian Revolutionary Guard],"
said Sadi Ahmed Pire, now head of the Diwan (office) of
President Talabani in Baghdad. Mr Pire previously lived in Arbil,
where he headed the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Mr
Talabani's political party.
The attempt by the US to seize the two high-ranking Iranian
security officers openly meeting with Iraqi leaders is somewhat
as if Iran had tried to kidnap the heads of the CIA and MI6
while they were on an official visit to a country neighbouring
Iran, such as Pakistan or Afghanistan. There is no doubt that
Iran believes that Mr Jafari and Mr Frouzanda were targeted by
the Americans. Mr Jafari confirmed to the official Iranian news
agency, IRNA, that he was in Arbil at the time of the raid.
In a little-noticed remark, Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian
Foreign Minister, told IRNA: "The objective of the Americans was
to arrest Iranian security officials who had gone to Iraq to
develop co-operation in the area of bilateral security."
US officials in Washington subsequently claimed that the five
Iranian officials they did seize, who have not been seen since,
were "suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting
Iraq and coalition forces". This explanation never made much
sense. No member of the US-led coalition has been killed in
Arbil and there were no Sunni-Arab insurgents or Shia militiamen
there.
The raid on Arbil took place within hours of President George
Bush making an address to the nation on 10 January in which he
claimed: "Iran is providing material support for attacks on
American troops." He identified Iran and Syria as America's main
enemies in Iraq though the four-year-old guerrilla war against
US-led forces is being conducted by the strongly anti-Iranian
Sunni-Arab community. Mr Jafari himself later complained about
US allegations. "So far has there been a single Iranian among
suicide bombers in the war-battered country?" he asked. "Almost
all who involved in the suicide attacks are from Arab
countries."
It seemed strange at the time that the US would so openly flout
the authority of the Iraqi President and the head of the KRG
simply to raid an Iranian liaison office that was being upgraded
to a consulate, though this had not yet happened on 11 January.
US officials, who must have been privy to the White House's new
anti-Iranian stance, may have thought that bruised Kurdish pride
was a small price to pay if the US could grab such senior
Iranian officials.
For more than a year the US and its allies have been trying to
put pressure on Iran. Security sources in Iraqi Kurdistan have
long said that the US is backing Iranian Kurdish guerrillas in
Iran. The US is also reportedly backing Sunni Arab dissidents in
Khuzestan in southern Iran who are opposed to the government in
Tehran. On 4 February soldiers from the Iraqi army 36th Commando
battalion in Baghdad, considered to be under American control,
seized Jalal Sharafi, an Iranian diplomat.
The raid in Arbil was a far more serious and aggressive act. It
was not carried out by proxies but by US forces directly. The
abortive Arbil raid provoked a dangerous escalation in the
confrontation between the US and Iran which ultimately led to
the capture of the 15 British sailors and Marines - apparently
considered a more vulnerable coalition target than their
American comrades.
The targeted generals
* MOHAMMED JAFARI
Powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council,
responsible for internal security. He has accused the United
States of seeking to "hold Iran responsible for insecurity in
Iraq... and [US] failure in the country."
* GENERAL MINOJAHAR FROUZANDA
Chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the
military unit which maintains its own intelligence service
separate from the state, as well as a parallel army, navy and
air force
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
Click here
to comment on this and other articles
Send Page To a Friend
In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational
purposes. Information Clearing House has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
|
