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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Mugniyeh's the pivot man for Shi'ite violence |
| 2004-04-25 |
| A leading Lebanese terrorist accused of blowing up the American embassy in Beirut in the 1980s is being held responsible for the increase in suicide bomb attacks against coalition targets in southern Iraq. Western intelligence officials have uncovered evidence that the attacks are being co-ordinated by Imad Mugniyeh, a leading figure in Lebanon's extremist Hizbollah Shia Muslim terror organisation. Mugniyeh, who is now in his fifties and has a close relationship with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, has been based in Teheran since the end of the Lebanese civil war, and is also known to have close links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terrorist network. Intelligence officials in Iraq have uncovered evidence that Mugniyeh has been helping to train the self-styled al-Mahdi army set up by Moqtada al-Sadr, the dissident Iraqi Shia leader. Mugniyeh, the head of Hizbollah's external security apparatus, has deployed scores of Lebanese Hizbollah fighters in Iraq, and set up secret training camps along the southern part of the border with Iran. The Hizbollah fighters are working closely with members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, with whom they developed a close relationship during the 1980s when their terror tactics forced the Reagan administration to withdraw US forces from Beirut. "This is all part of a strategy devised by hardliners in Iran to repeat their success in Lebanon and drive coalition troops out of Iraq," said a senior intelligence official. "Their main aim is to create an Iranian-style Islamic republic in Iraq." Attempts by Iranian hardliners to encourage attacks on coalition targets are being undertaken against the wishes of the Iranian government, which earlier this month sent a team of diplomats to Iraq to persuade Sadr to end his stand-off with American troops. But at the same time as Iranian officials were negotiating with Sadr, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's hardline spiritual leader, was circulating a cassette tape in Arabic to a number of Iraqi mosques in which he called on the Iraqis to "unite and expel the occupiers to ensure the establishment of a new power based on Islam." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Thanks, Dan. Well here's Mugniyeh's aura finally explicitly reported. Connected to this, two questions: 1) is it true that the Iranian "diplomat" hit in Baghdad recently was an al-Quds/IGRC biggie, and 2) while I think the "more troops" mantra is over-simplified, this item raises the more pertinent question of tactics and priorities, namely why have Hezbollah and Hamas been allowed to set up (open) shop in the south, and why the hell have camps been allowed to operate? (if true) Given the geography, I wonder if this is another item on which CPA and the Brits have differed, and if that explains anything. Oh, another matter: who would have the motive to hit the al-Quds guy (besides commenters on this site, that is)? |
| Posted by: IceCold 2004-04-25 9:31:02 PM |