Reports of Iran firing artillery into Iraq

[Mark Gobell]

Don't know how true this is as I cannot find any other source.

Iran fires artillery into Iraq, captures 7 border guards

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2006/me_iran_09_11.html

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

Monday, September 11, 2006

BAGHDAD — Iran has shelled Iraq and captured seven of its soldiers in an escalation of ongoing skirmishes.

Iraqi officials said the Iran Army fired artillery shells into Iraq last week and captured seven soldiers northeast of Baghdad.

This was the most serious incident between Iran and Iraq in 2006. Last year, Iraq reported Iranian Navy clashes with Iraqi patrols.
On Saturday, the Iraqi Defense Ministry reported the Iranian capture of seven members of an Iraqi border patrol. The ministry said the Iraqis were detained while they were stationed at the Hankin border terminal near Haila. The ministry said an investigation has been launched.

In August, Kurdish officials in Iraq said the Iran Army shelled suspected insurgency strongholds in northern Iraq.

Iran has acknowledged fighting along the border. The state-owned Iranian news agency Irna said on Sept. 7 that Iran captured seven Iraqi soldiers who crossed into Iran's Ilam province.

"The reason for their infiltration is under investigation," Irna quoted an Iranian security source as saying.

But Iraqi officials later said Iran provoked the clashes by firing artillery shells into Iraq on Sept. 6. They reported artillery strikes near the Iraqi town of Mandali, 100 kilometers from Baghdad.

On Sept. 7, officials said, an Iraqi border patrol spotted an Iranian outpost in Iraqi territory. A clash ensued and the seven Iraqi soldiers were captured and taken into Iran, they said.

The fighting came on the eve of a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki to Teheran. Al Maliki was to have flown to Iran last week, but the visit was postponed.

In an unrelated development, a U.S. Senate report determined that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did not maintain a relationship with Al Qaida or Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi. The report, released on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Al Qaida suicide strikes on New York and Washington, asserted that Hussein was "distrustful of Al Qaida and viewed extermists as a threat to his regime."

[sr4470]

This is going to be a lot of ammunition for the warmongers. Iran isnt going to lay down and take it either.

[foliagecop]

Still no corroboration on this anywhere. Very strange.

True or untrue?

It's not as if today (9/11) was a quiet news day...

[Mark Gobell]

Good question !

I have no idea why this has only just been reported if it was supposed to have occurred on 7th September.

Maybe we are seeing the evolution of a planted piece of false intelligence.

[MiniMauve]

Perhaps it's a story planted by the CIA's propaganda machine as the start of the rev up for war with Iran. Start a small rumour in some backwater, have 'journalists' on the CIA payroll pick it up in foreign papers, before you know it CNN and FOX are wringing their hands about the 'Iranian Menace'. Cue GWBush at stage left....

[ian neal]

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