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The_Red_Crayon
Exposer of Truth
Registered: 08/13/03
Posts: 13,673
Loc: Smokey Mtns. TN
Last seen: 6 years, 10 months
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British SAS present in Iran already
#7569349 - 10/28/07 10:22 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2691726.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084
BRITISH special forces have crossed into Iran several times in recent months as part of a secret border war against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Al-Quds special forces, defence sources have disclosed.
There have been at least half a dozen intense firefights between the SAS and arms smugglers, a mixture of Iranians and Shi’ite militiamen.
The unreported fighting straddles the border between Iran and Iraq and has also involved the Iranian military firing mortars into Iraq. UK commanders are concerned that Iran is using a militia ceasefire to step up arms supplies in preparation for an offensive against their base at Basra airport.
An SAS squadron is carrying out operations along the Iranian border in Maysan and Basra provinces with other special forces, the Australian SAS and American special-operations troops
They are patrolling the border, ambushing arms smugglers bringing in surface-to-air missiles and components for roadside bombs. “Last month, they were involved in six significant contacts, which killed 17 smugglers and recovered weapons, explosives and missiles,” a source said. It was not clear if any of the dead were Iranian.
Last week, Bob Ainsworth, the armed forces minister, said the Ministry of Defence was unable to say whether British troops had killed or captured any Iranians in Iraq. The ministry declined to comment, but privately officials insisted British troops never carry out hot pursuit across the border.
There have been persistent reports of American special-operations missions inside Iran preparing for a possible attack. But the sources said British troops were solely stopping arms smuggling.
The fighting comes amid an increase in US and British intelligence operations against Iran. Britain’s forces have more than 70 Farsi experts monitoring Iranian communications, and the intelligence is shared with the United States.
Seven American U2 spy planes have passed through RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire this year on their way to Akrotiri in Cyprus or Al-Dhafra in Abu Dhabi, the bases for flights over Iran.
The Al-Quds force has been increasing its arms supplies to both the Shi’ite militias in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Officially, Britain has been careful not to blame the Iranian government.
But senior British officials have confirmed to The Sunday Times that it would not happen without the backing of the Iranian leadership.
They pointed out that Gen Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Al-Quds force, has direct access to Ayatollah Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran
Liam Fox, the Conservative defence spokesman, said: “Increasingly Iran poses a direct threat to our armed forces and our wider interests . . . they are playing a very dangerous game.”
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aDoS
freedom lover
Registered: 06/18/05
Posts: 7,590
Loc: land of the free
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Re: British SAS present in Iran already [Re: The_Red_Crayon]
#7571764 - 10/29/07 03:07 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Maybe Britain will take one for the team and declare war on Iran. So that the US can tag along in a subtle way.
-------------------- "If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution - then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise." - Aldous Huxley GIVE ME OPIATES OR GIVE ME DEATH
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fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger
Registered: 03/12/02
Posts: 24,855
Loc: Pandurn
Last seen: 1 year, 2 months
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Re: British SAS present in Iran already [Re: aDoS]
#7571777 - 10/29/07 03:20 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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It is amazing how these governments feel they have a mandate to simply act like this. The fact is, they do not, they have no right to interfere with the course of other nations like this. Who does Britian and the United States represent? I could not speak for Britian, who has a long history of monarchy and despotism, but the United States government has no mandate to operate like this, even though it certainly has become accustomed to doing so.
War with Iran seems more and more inevitable, and increasingly baseless. Who are these fuck-heads answering to? They aren't answering to the people who have given them their power.
Isn't it wonderful that some assholes are going to ruin the world as we know it and wage war for no reason but to wage war?
I haven't even heard of any pretense under which we would justly go to war with Iran. Clearly, it will be even more ludicrous than in the name of terrorism.
Will it be because of Iran's efforts to wage war in Iraq, perhaps? Even if Iran were fueling war agansit the United States and Britian, in Iraq, it still is no justification for us waging war in Iran.
Sad fact that gullible citizens are never given through the media to understand: Iran has just as much right to wage war in Iraq agansit any forces, for whatever reason they feel necessary, as the United States does.
At the very least, Iran's military presence in Iraq makes more sense than the United States being there.
-------------------- If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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