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Report: Hundreds of Iraqis on new Iran death list

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

LONDON — Iran is training a new corps of operatives in Iraq, following the defeat of Shi'ite militia groups and the defection of their fighters.

A former Iranian general told a newspaper here the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has been training assassination squads in cooperation with the Lebanese-based Hizbullah. The general said IRGC's Quds Force has drafted a list of hundreds of Iraqis, many of them senior officials, targeted for death.

"There are personalities in Iraq who the Iranian Intelligence Service and the Quds Force view as permanent enemies, and that their elimination is at the top of the Quds Force's list of priorities in Iraq," Brig. Gen. Al Haj Reza said.

In an interview with the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat, Reza, a bogus name meant to avoid Iranian retaliation, said Hizbullah has become the leading agent for IRGC in Iraq. The general said Hizbullah was involved in Quds Force operations in the Iraqi provinces of Amara, Baghdad, Basra and Najaf.

"There are enemies who can be bought or forced to change their stands toward the Islamic republic of Iran by terrorizing or threatening their family members who reside in Iran," Reza said. IRGC's new strategy was launched in 2008 in wake of the defeat by the Mahdi Army and Special Groups throughout Iraq. Reza said the Quds Force has formed squads of between five and nine assassins.

Reza did not identify the Iraqis targeted by the Quds Force. But he said many of them were leading Iraqi Shi'ites regarded as Teheran's friends during the Saddam Hussein regime and now deemed enemies.

"It transpired to the Iranian leadership that officials on whom it had counted are Iraqis before being friends of Iran," Reza said. "Even though they were allied with Iran during the time of struggle, they assume responsibility in their country. Therefore, they refuse to serve as a tool in the hands of IRGC and the [Iranian] supreme leader."

Reza said many of the new assassin squads were comprised of Iraqi Shi'ites who fled on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. He said the squads were replacing thousands of fighters from Iranian-financed militias, such as the Badr Corps, today a major element of the Iraq Army and police.

"IRGC has begun to train Iraqi Shi'ite youths from the families that were deported to Iran on the eve of the U.S. invasion," Reza said.

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