US nabs Iranians in Iraq

There seems to have been no authorisation of this by Iraqi authorities and Kurdish authorities apparently did not even know about it. The raid shows the lack of sovereignty of the Iraqi government and the complete arrogance of the US occupiers. I just wonder if the result of all this will be a common front by Sunni insurgents and Sadr's militias against the US. Apparently the US will US Kurdish contingents of the Iraqi army when they take on Sadr in the slums of Baghdad.


Report: U.S. Troops Raid Iranian Consulate in Iraq
By Howard Schneider and Joshua PartlowWashington Post Staff WritersThursday, January 11, 2007; 11:04 AM
U.S. troops raided an Iranian consulate in northern Iraq late Wednesday night and detained several people, Iran's main news agency reported today, prompting protests from Tehran just hours after President Bush pledged to crack down on the Islamic Republic's role in Iraqi violence.
Iran released news of the raid through its Islamic Republic News Agency in a dispatch that was broadly critical of Bush's plan to deploy about 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.
The IRNA report said that U.S. forces entered the Iranian consulate in Irbil, in Iraq's Kurdish-dominated north, and seized computers, documents and other items. The report said five staff members were taken into custody.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry appealed to the Iraqi government to obtain the release of its personnel.
U.S. officials have not confirmed the raid but did say in a press release that they had taken six people into custody in Irbil during the course of "routine security operations." The release said the individuals were "suspected of being closely tied" to attacks on Iraqi and U.S. forces.
The incident could provide an early test of promises by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to enforce security laws more strictly regardless of the political or ethnic affiliation of the suspect.
In December, the United States apprehended two men described as senior Iranian agents, in the process seizing lists of weapons and weapons shipments, organizational charts and other documents. In a decision that angered U.S. officials, the Iraqi government decided to simply expel them to Iran.
Maliki's Shiite government has ties to Iran and has been accused of overlooking security breeches on the part of Shiite militias and death squads.
In his speech Wednesday night calling for deployment of more U.S. troops, Bush said that part of Iraq's security "begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."
Although U.S. officials have not confirmed that an Iranian diplomatic building was involved in today's raid, a man who lives next to the consulate, Sardar Hassan Mohammed, 34, said he saw what he believed to be U.S. forces surrounding the building with their vehicles before entering it. Mohammed said at least five people were taken.
An official with the Kurdish Democratic Party, who declined to give his name, said the U.S. troops confiscated belongings inside the consulate in addition to arresting people inside.
Without addressing the recent incident, top U.S. officials in Washington were pointed in remarks today about how they intend to follow up on Bush's pledge to curb Syrian and Iranian influence in Iraq.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the United States is systematically trying to identify networks of people who bring weapons and explosives into the country -- a central allegation against Iran -- and will move to shut them down.
Improvised explosives have been a key source of U.S. casualties and deaths since the war began.
"We will do what is necessary for force protection," Rice said at a press conference. "Networks are identified. They are identified from intelligence and they are acted upon . . . whatever the nationality."
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , Gen. Peter Pace, referring to the earlier arrest of Iranians, said that Tehran's involvement in Iraq "is destructive. . . . They are complicit . . . and we will do what is necessary."