- Iranian-backed Iraqi opposition forces have crossed into
northern Iraq from Iran with the aim of securing the frontier in the event
of war, according to senior Iranian officials.
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- The forces, numbering up to 5,000 troops, with some heavy
equipment, are nominally under the command of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir
al-Hakim, a prominent Iraqi Shia Muslim opposition leader who has been
based in Iran since 1980 and lives in Tehran.
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- A US State Department official said he was aware of reports
that part of Ayatollah Hakim's Badr brigade had crossed into northern Iraq
but declined further comment. Analysts close to the administration of President
George W. Bush said the US was concerned about the intentions of this new
element in an increasingly complicated patchwork of forces in northern
Iraq.
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- Turkey has long had a limited military presence in northern
Iraq, and US special forces began moving into the region several months
ago. The Badr brigade has been trained and equipped by Iran's Revolutionary
Guards and could be regarded as a proxy force of the Iranian government.
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- Iranian officials insist that force's role in the north
is defensive but its presence will exacerbate the concerns of the US and
especially the Arab world that military intervention in Iraq will lead
to a permanent disintegration of the country. Through inserting a proxy
force, Iran is underlining that it cannot be ignored in future discussions
over Iraq's make-up.
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- Ayatollah Hakim's forces had previously been based in
southern Iran, close to Iraq. Two months ago they began moving into the
area of northern Iraq governed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK),
one of two Kurdish parties that rule an area the size of Switzerland outside
Baghdad's control.
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- A senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named,
said the presence of Ayatollah Hakim's troops was defensive and aimed at
countering a possible attack on Iran by the People's Mujahideen Organisation
(MKO), an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq and strongly supported
by President Saddam Hussein.
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- Another official said the Badr force had moved into an
area near Darbandikhan, a depopulated and rugged stretch of hills and ravines
about 15 miles from the closest point on the Iranian border.
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- The MKO used Iraqi territory to mount attacks on Iran
during the 1980-88 war between Iran and Iraq. The Kurdish parties controlling
northern Iraq have also expressed fears that Mr Hussein would try to use
the MKO against them in the event of a US-led invasion of Iraq.
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- Ayatollah Hakim is the head of the Supreme Council for
Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), a mainly Shia Muslim group that fought
in the failed 1991 uprising against Baghdad in southern Iraq. More recently
Sciri has taken part in talks between the Iraqi opposition and the US.
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- His office in Tehran denied that the Badr brigade had
moved into northern Iraq but said Sciri had maintained forces in that region
for several years, gathered from Iraqi Shia who had fled the Iraqi regime.
A representative of the PUK also denied there had been a recent movement
across the border but confirmed a presence of Sciri forces.
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