U.S.-led forces detain 6 Iranian workers
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S.-led multinational forces detained six Iranians Thursday at Tehran's diplomatic mission in the northern city of Irbil, Iraqi officials said, as President Bush accused Iran and Syria of aiding militants and promised to "interrupt" the flow of support as part of his new war strategy.
The U.S. military said it had taken six people into custody in the Irbil region but made no mention of a raid on the Iranian consulate.
The forces entered the building about 3 a.m., detaining the Iranians and confiscating computers and documents, two senior local Kurdish officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. Irbil is a city in the Kurdish-controlled north, 220 miles from Baghdad.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the government was seeking clarification from the Americans and the Iranians "about these people and what they were doing there and whether they were employees."
In Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the Iraqi and Swiss ambassadors and "demanded an explanation" about the incident. Switzerland represents American interests in Iran, where there is no U.S. Embassy.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told state-run radio that the raid was "against a diplomatic mission" since the "presence of Iranian staffers in Irbil was legal." Hosseini claimed the action by coalition forces reflected a "continuation of pressure" on Iran, aiming to "create tension" between Iraq and its neighbors.
At the Pentagon, a senior U.S. military official said the building was not a consulate and did not have any diplomatic status. The six Iranians were taken in a "cordon-and-knock" operation, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
The raid came as tensions are high between Iran and the United States. The Bush administration has accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and of helping fuel violence in Iraq. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, is trying to expand Tehran's role in Iraq as a counter to U.S. influence in the Gulf region.
Al-Dabbagh said any improvement in relations between the United States, Syria and Iran would only help Iraq.
"Sometimes we pay the price for the tension in relations between Iran and the United States and Syria, therefore it is in our interest ... that these relations improve, but not at the expense of Iraq," he said.
Bush's new strategy, however, ignored key recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which in December called for a new diplomatic offensive and an outreach to Syria and Iran. Instead, he accused both countries of aiding terrorists and insurgents in Iraq.
"We will disrupt the attacks on our forces," Bush said. "We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria."
Politicians and ordinary Iraqis, meanwhile, expressed skepticism Thursday that Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq will quell the violence in their country, but some offered weary acceptance of any effort to stop the carnage after several failed past attempts.
The varied reactions underscored the challenges facing the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government, which is under pressure to rein in predominantly Shiite militias as well as Sunni insurgents as both sides have killed thousands in spiraling sectarian attacks.
An aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki welcomed the new strategy but stressed that the government must take the lead in the military action. The plan also envisions 10,000 to 12,000 Iraqi troops to secure Baghdad neighborhoods, and al-Maliki has announced plans for a new Iraqi security operation, although similar efforts have been unsuccessful.
"The failure in Iraq will not only affect this country only but the rest of the region and the world, including the United States," al-Maliki aide Sadiq al-Rikabi said.
"The current situation is not acceptable _ not only for the American people but also for the Iraqis and their government. As Iraqis and as an elected government we welcome the American commitment for success," he added. "The Iraqi government also is committed to succeed."
"The American plan cannot succeed without us because we work in the same field in order to defeat violence and terrorism and boost the democratic system," he said.
A Sunni lawmaker rejected the plan to send more U.S. troops and called instead for a timetable for them to withdraw, while other critics from both sects said it wouldn't succeed because of the power of mostly Shiite militias that have been blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence.
"Bush's plan could be the last attempt to fix the chaos created after the invasion of Iraq. Yet, sending more troops will not end the problem, on the contrary, there will be more bloodshed," said Sunni lawmaker Hussein al-Falluji.
Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said the "plan will fail. Sending more troops and financial support will not help if there is no sectarian and political solution."
"Sending troops and pumping money could improve the situation for some time, but I am not optimistic," he said.
He also said it was a bad idea to send Kurdish troops to fight Shiite militia members in Baghdad "because they don't know the area and they don't know the people. There will also be new Arab-Kurdish sensitivities."
Osama Ahmed, a 50-year-old Sunni who works in the Ministry of Higher Education, said he got up early to watch the speech, which was broadcast live at 5 a.m. Thursday on Iraqi state television.
"More U.S. troops will mean more wasted blood and more people killed," Ahmed said. "The violence will surge unless U.S. administration decides to curb militiamen who are part of the Iraqi government."
He accused the Shiite-dominated government of backing the militias in attacking Sunnis, saying "there is no point of giving more security responsibilities to the Iraqi government because it is a sectarian government and it is responsible for the violence hitting the country."
Abdel-Karim Jassim, a 44-year-old Shiite trader, said he had hoped Bush would come up with something other than the troop increase.
"Sending more troops will not solve the problem," he said, although he acknowledged that "Iraqis cannot handle security issue on their own because of the sectarian divisions and the strong militias and insurgents."
Awad Mukhtar, a 35-year-old technician, said Bush's new proposals could be Iraq's "last chance" for peace.
"The security situation in Iraq is very bad, we are facing death at any moment daily," Mukhtar said. "I see the new Bush strategy as the last chance for Iraqis to save their lives ... we have no other choice, only to wait and see the results."
In other violence:
_ A suicide truck bomber hit the house of the head of the municipal council in Samarra, killing three people and wounding 33, police said. The Sunni mayor was slightly wounded.
_ Gunmen killed a professor driving home from the University of Mosul in northern Iraq.
_ Suspected Sunni insurgents set fire to a large oil pipeline in northern Iraq, interrupting the flow from the Kirkuk oil fields, an official of the Northern Oil Co. said.
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