Iranian Commandos Sneak up on US Air Bases in Iraq
Iran’s leaders have never doubted that whatever US leaders may say or do about favoring diplomacy, they are really blowing smoke. The clerics of Tehran are certain that Washington is determined to go to war against the Islamic Republic – as we have reported in previous issues. These suspicions find concrete form in Iran’s new deployment – not only in Syria and Lebanon (as outlined in previous article) but also in Iraq.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly‘s Iraq and counter-terror sources reveal that Iran is operating on both fronts simultaneously. In Iraq, Tehran has managed to infiltrate Revolutionary Guards commando Vijeh Vahed-Haye units, the Iranian equivalents of crack American Delta forces or Russian elite Spetsnaz units.
They are trained as a strike force against American bases. Positioned under cover around the most important US air bases in Iraq, their mission is to prevent the US air force from flying assault missions against Iranian targets, whether nuclear or military. They were taught to blow up runways, bomb the hangars storing aircraft and ordnance, hit power, fuel and water supply utilities, smash command and communications centers and cut the American bases’ road links.
As in Syria and Lebanon, advanced electronic instruments in the hands of small surveillance teams keep the bases under constant observation.
Our sources report that these Iranian units have been planted outside ten American air force bases or facilities in Iraq, Talil south of Nasiriya in the south, not far from Basra where the Royal Air Force also maintains a small secret air unit; Habbaniya, west of Baghdad, an American air force section at Baghdad International, H3 and H4 air bases opposite the Jordanian border, and Harir International at the Kurdish capital of Irbil. There is no real American military presence now but Tehran believes the airfield can be used at short notice for air attacks; Barmeni, in Kurdistan, long a Turkish armored unit and ground troops bases, which American engineers converted and upgraded months before their 2003 invasion into a large air base; as well as Bakarjo and Naqwa also in Kurdistan.
(Attached Map B illustrates US bases and Iranian deployment).
