General Betrayus: Iran "Behind Green Zone Attack"

Iran 'behind Green Zone attack'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7311565.stm

3/24/2008

The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday's bombardment of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired the barrage of mortars and rockets.

He said Iran was adding what he described as "lethal accelerants" to a very combustible mix.

There has as yet been no response from Iran to the accusations.

In response to the news that 4,000 US military personnel have now been killed in Iraq, he said it showed how much the mission had cost but added that Americans were realistic about it.

He also said a great deal of progress had been made because of the "flipping" of communities - the decision by Sunni tribes to turn against al-Qaeda militants.

The extent of this had surprised even the US military, he said.

'Promises violated'
In an interview with BBC world affairs editor John Simpson, Gen Petraeus said violence in Iraq was being perpetuated by Iran's Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards.

"The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday, for example... were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets," he said, adding that the groups that fired them were funded and trained by the Quds Force.

"All of this in complete violation of promises made by President Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts."

The barrage hit the Green Zone on Sunday morning. Some rockets missed their targets killing 15 Iraqi civilians.

Later in the day four US soldiers died when their patrol vehicle was blown up by a bomb in southern Baghdad, putting the total number of US fatalities above 4,000.

This and other bloodshed on Sunday came despite an overall reduction in violence since last June, when the US deployed an extra 30,000 troops for the surge.

Days earlier, Mr Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion, saying that it had made the world a better place.

Petraeus: Iran Behind Rocket Attack On Green Zone

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341108,00.html

Monday, March 24, 2008

Gen. David Petraeus, commanding general of the Multi-National Forces in Iraq, says he has evidence that Iran trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired a volley of mortars and rockets at the protected Green Zone in Baghdad.

Petraeus, in an interview Monday with the BBC, said Iran's Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards, was behind the insurgent attack.

"The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday, for example... were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets," he said, adding that the groups that fired them were funded and trained by the Quds Force.

"All of this in complete violation of promises made by President Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts," he told the BBC.

Some rockets meant for the Green Zone missed their targets, killing 15 Iraqi civilians, officials said.

Iran behind Green Zone barrage: Petraeus

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...25/2197922.htm

Posted 1 hour 49 minutes ago

America's top General in Iraq David Petraeus says he has evidence that Iran was behind the sustained bombardment of the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad on Easter Sunday.

The Green Zone came under repeated attack during the day with local security sources saying 15 civilians were killed by rockets which missed their targets.

General Petraeus says Iranian special forces - the Quds Force - are adding what he calls "lethal accelerants" to a "very combustible mix".

"The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday for example, the international zone, were Iranian provided," he said.

"Elements that are paid for, they are funded, they are trained, they've been equipped and they've been directed by and large by the Iranian Quds force."

In other news, civilian casualties spiked in Iraq last week amid an increase in high-profile attacks, a US military official said, raising the spectre of rising violence as US "surge" forces draw down.

The levels of violence are still well below peaks reached last year at the height of the surge in US forces into Iraq, and it was too soon to tell whether the increase signals a new trend, the official said.

"So far everything is still well below the worst of the worst, but we want to make sure that trend continues," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In a grim reminder of how fragile the situation remains, the US death toll for the five-year-old war hit the 4,000 mark over the weekend with the killing of four soldiers in a roadside bombing in Baghdad.

Meanwhile the remains of two American security contractors who were kidnapped more than one year ago have been found in Iraq, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said.

The remains were identified as Ronald Withrow, who worked for JPI Worldwide when he was kidnapped on January 5, 2007, and John Roy Young, who worked for Crescent Security Group when he was kidnapped on November 16, 2006.

And Iraqi authorities imposed a night-time curfew on the movement of people and vehicles in the southern province of Basra until further notice due to clashes between police and members of Mehdi Army militia.

American death toll in Iraq reaches 4,000
Four US troops among those killed as violence surges

http://www.boston.com/news/world/art..._reaches_4000/

By Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post / March 24, 2008

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed four US soldiers on patrol in southern Baghdad last night, the military said in a statement today, taking the overall US death toll in the five-year Iraq war to at least 4,000.

Earlier, mortar and rocket attacks pounded the Green Zone, the heavily fortified US-Iraqi military and government complex, on a day when more than 60 people were killed in violence across the country.

The attack on the US patrol also injured one soldier, but further details were not available.

Navy Lieutenant Patrick Evans, a military spokesman, expressed condolences to all the families who have lost a loved one in Iraq, saying each death is "equally tragic."

"There have been some significant gains. However, this enemy is resilient and will not give up, nor will we," he said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."

The 4,000 figure is according to an Associated Press count that includes eight civilians who worked for the Department of Defense.

The Green Zone assault began shortly before 6 a.m., waking US military personnel, then resumed later in the day and continued into the evening.

Four people received medical treatment, US Embassy spokesman Philip Reeker said. He said he did not know the identities of those injured or their medical status.

No group asserted responsibility, but similar attacks in the past have been tied to Shiite extremist groups.

The Green Zone shelling and the other attacks across Iraq marked an escalation of violence at the start of the war's sixth year.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide attacker detonated an explosives-laden truck after driving through the main gate of an Iraqi army headquarters. The blast killed 15 Iraqi soldiers and wounded 42.

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in the western neighborhood of Sholeh at about 2:30 p.m., killing five Iraqi civilians and wounding seven. Gunmen in the southern part of the capital opened fire in a market, killing six civilians and injuring 17 others. Also in southern Baghdad, US forces in helicopters killed 15 gunmen and injured 17, according to Interior Ministry sources.

In central Baghdad, mortar rounds demolished houses, killing two civilians, including a child. At least two people were killed when mortar shells, apparently aimed at the Green Zone, landed on their houses in the Kamaliya district.

On Baghdad's west side, in the Mansour area, one person was killed in a roadside bombing, Interior Ministry sources said.

In Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, gunmen in Balad Ruz attacked the convoy of an emergency battalion commander, killing him and three of his bodyguards. Four Iraqi soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the city. Near Baqouba, also northeast of Baghdad, a battalion commander was fatally shot outside his house. In downtown Baqouba, a gunman killed a policeman and injured two others.

After a lull, violence has escalated in recent days. Shiite leaders on Friday warned followers to expect more bloodshed after a suicide bombing near a Shiite shrine in Karbala today and continued clashes between Iraqi forces and Shiite militias in southern areas of the country.

Also yesterday, the commander of US prisons in Iraq defended the military's incarceration policies as the detainee population has swelled to 23,000, nearly 45 percent higher than a year ago.

Not good. Not good at all.

serious buisness

Given the recent false accusations of aggression towards U.S. Naval ships, Cheney's tour of the Middle East, and how Iran was "high" on his list of topics, Fallon's resignation, Bush's recent lie about Iran's intentions regarding Nukes, and today's accusation from General Betrayus that Iran was behind the Green Zone attacks (topping the official toll of 4000 dead American soldiers), I'm scared again that something is going to happen. I think Conyers should impeach BEFORE we do anything stupid.

Oh shit.