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Iranian role reported in assassination
From Geostrategy-DirectAn Iranian who fled Iraq has said that Teheran was involved in the assassination of a prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim in Najaf. The Iranian informant told the Arabic newspaper Al Sharq Al Awsat that the Al Quds Corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was involved in the operation. However, the informant said that the top official of the Iranian government, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was not aware of the Iranian role. Al Hakim and some 100 of his supporters were killed by a car bomb Aug. 29. He was chairman of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and was viewed as pro-American by the Iranians. According to the newspaper, a member of the assassination team contacted Amir Farshad Ibrahimi, a former Iranian Quds member who had been trained in Lebanon and Sudan with the help of Egyptian Al Qaida leader Ayman al Zawahiri. The informant, identified only as Amir, reported by email that he needed help in fleeing Iran after three Quds members involved in the Hakim assassination died suspiciously in traffic accidents. The informant was able to flee to Eastern Europe where he is waiting to see if he can obtain asylum from Iraq or an Arab country. The informant said he has information about other Iranian-linked bombings, including the United Nations center, the Jordanian embassy and a Baghdad hotel. "We were 10 and all from the team of liquidation whose members underwent difficult training in Iran, Lebanon, and Sudan," the informant stated. "We took a military, security and ideological training course in a camp close to the border with Iraq before we left. We thought before entering Iraq that our task was to kill Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian ruler of Iraq. But an official in Al-Quds Corps came to the camp before we left for Iraq and spoke about Al-Hakimâs betrayal and surrender to the Americans. "The officialâs talk at first surprised us but he showed us evidence and photographs that revealed the close ties that Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim and his brother Abd-al-Aziz, member of the Governing Council, had with Bremer and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld." The Iranians targeted Al Hakim after he had backed down from supporting an Islamic republic in Iraq. The 10 Iranian Quds members posed as radio and television correspondents, saying they wanted to do a film on his life. Al-Hakim welcomed them and allowed them to stay with him five days before the car bombing. The informant said that Iran has sent some 30 cells of IRGC intelligence and paramilitary forces to Najaf, Baghdad, Karbala, Al Kufah and Basra. The assassins used a car packed with 1,000 kilos of high explosives and triggered by a remote control detonator. A second vehicle, packed with 300 kilograms of Semtex plastic explosive, was planted behind the first car bomb and detonated by the driver as Al Hakim left a mosque after Friday prayers. "We filmed the funeral of what was left of Al-Hakimâs body and then returned to Iran as if nothing had happened," the informant said. "But the team members started to become victims of traffic incidents one after the other and this prompted me to search for a way to flee Iran before I join my colleagues in their graves." I would like to see some verification of this claim, but it would be good if it were verified as true. Another nail in the coffins of the black turbanned neighbors. The other team members having fatal traffic accidents one after another was a nice touch. Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-11-05 |
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