Iran-Backed Opposition Enters Iraq

Iran-Backed Opposition Enters Iraq

NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2003

LONDON – Five thousand troops backed with heavy equipment and under the command of a longtime Iraqi opposition leader have crossed from Iran into northern Iraq, it was reported today.

The Financial Times, in an article reported from Tehran and Washington, said the Badr brigade of the Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al Hakim, who has been in Iran since 1980, moved into Iraq. Iranian officials told the newspaper the force was defensive.

The newspaper said the Badr brigade was equipped and trained by Iranian forces and could be seen as a proxy force of the Iranian government ahead of any regime change in Iraq.

The Times quoted a senior Iranian official as saying the deployment was to counter a possible strike into Iran by People's Mujahedin Organization, an Iranian opposition group linked to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, that staged attacks on Iran from that area in the 1980-88 war between the two countries.

Al Hakim's forces had previously been in southern Iran but two months ago began moving into northern Iraq, an area controlled by Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the newspaper said.

Al Hakim is the leader of Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and conducted an uprising against Hussein in southern Iraq in 1991 after the Gulf War. His group has been among those included in talks involving U.S. officials and Iraqi opposition factions.

The Times reported that al Hakim's office in Tehran denied that the Badr brigade had moved into Iraq but said it had had forces in the area for years. Though a PUK official told the newspaper there had been no recent movements across the Iran-Iraq border, a U.S. State Department official told the newspaper he was aware of reports that al Hakim forces had moved into Iraq but would not comment further.

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