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U.S. troops authorized to kill Iranians in
Iraq
26.1.2007 |
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January 26, 2007
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has
authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture
Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an
aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence
across the Middle East and compel it to give up its
nuclear program, according to government and
counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of
the effort.
For more than a year, U.S. forces in Iraq have
secretly detained dozens of suspected Iranian
agents, holding them for three to four days at a
time.
The "catch and release" policy was designed to avoid
escalating tensions with Iran and yet intimidate its
emissaries. U.S. forces collected DNA samples from
some of the Iranians without their knowledge,
subjected others to retina scans, and fingerprinted
and photographed all of them before letting them go.
Last summer, however, senior administration
officials decided a more confrontational approach
was necessary, as Iran's regional influence grew and
U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran appeared to be
failing. The country's nuclear program was
advancing, U.S. allies were resisting robust
sanctions against the Tehran government and Iran was
aggravating sectarian violence in Iraq.
"There were no costs for the Iranians," said one
senior administration official. "They are hurting
our mission in Iraq, and we were bending over
backward not to fight back."
Three officials said that about 150 Iranian
intelligence officers, plus members of Iran's
Revolutionary Guard Command, are believed to be
active inside Iraq at any given time. There is no
evidence the Iranians have directly attacked U.S.
troops in Iraq, intelligence officials said.
But, for three years, the Iranians have operated an
embedding program there, offering operational
training, intelligence and weaponry to several
Shiite militias connected to the Iraqi government,
to the insurgency and to the violence against Sunni
factions. Gen. Michael Hayden, director of the CIA,
told the Senate recently that the amount of
Iranian-supplied materiel used against U.S. troops
in Iraq "has been quite striking."
The new "kill or capture" program was authorized by
President Bush in a meeting of his most senior
advisers last fall, along with other measures meant
to curtail Iranian influence from Kabul to Beirut
and, ultimately, to shake Iran's commitment to its
nuclear program.
In Iraq, U.S. troops now have the authority to
target any member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, as
well as officers of its intelligence services
believed to be working with Iraqi militias. The
policy does not extend to Iranian civilians or
diplomats.
Though U.S. forces are not known to have used lethal
force against any Iranian to date, Bush
administration officials have been urging top
military commanders to exercise the authority.
washingtonpost com
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