Anon Brit officials blame Iran for Iraq attacks on UK troops

Reuters: Britain blames Iran for Iraq attacks on UK troops

Britain accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday of supplying weapons to Shi'ite militia in Iraq used to attack British troops.

Washington and London have long accused Iran of fomenting unrest in Iraq, but the allegations, made by British officials under condition of anonymity, were more detailed than previous public remarks.

An official told Reuters that recent attacks on British troops in southern Iraq appeared to have been carried out by a splinter group from the militia of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The attackers "were using technically advanced equipment that had previously been used by Lebanese Hezbollah, and they are linked with Iran. Therefore there was some indication that Iran was linked to those attacks," he said.

Attacks in Iraq were carried out using armour-piercing explosives and infrared control mechanisms "which basically you would need specific expertise to use" and were similar to devices used by Hezbollah, the official said. Read more

db: The implications of such charges are not insignificant - so it's unlikely that the British officials were speaking without authority to do so. Given the reports that Jack Straw and other members of the British cabinet are firmly against military action against Iran a cynical observer might see this as a start in the compilation of a new 'dodgy dossier' to win hearts and minds.