Iran 'Paying Iraqis 500 Dollars a Month' to Attack Coalition Forces

The Austrailian:

IRANIAN -- agents are paying local Iraqis around the southern city of Basra as much as 500 dollars a month to carry out attacks on coalition forces. British Lieutenant Colonel Justin Maciejewski said contact with locals suggested that the “vast majority” of violence against British troops stationed in the city came from outside Iraq.

“We haven't found any 'smoking gun' but certainly all the circumstantial evidence points to Iranian involvement in the bombings here in Basra, which is disrupting the city to a great extent,” he added.

Lt-Col Maciejewski, who is the commanding officer at the British base at Basra Palace, went on: “Local sheikhs and tribal leaders here in Basra - who are desperate to prevent this violence escalating - are telling us that Iranian agents are paying up to $500 a month for young Basrawi men to attack us.

“I have no direct proof that I can put my hand on, but I have no reason to disbelieve what we have been told by locals here, who are desperate for this interference in their internal affairs to stop.

“They want to rebuild their city and make it a thriving city here in southern Iraq.”

The officer's comments follow those by Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has on a number of occasions accused Tehran of supplying Iraqis opposed to the coalition presence with weapons, via Iraq's loose eastern border with Iran.

“We have a lot of very modern and quite sophisticated weaponry being used against us - weaponry that could only really have been procured from a state,” Lt-Col Maciejewski said.

“These are not old munitions from the Iran-Iraq war. They are much more modern, some of them produced in 2006 and the locals are telling us that these are coming in from Iran.”

Mr Blair announced in February that the 7200-strong British contingent in and around Basra would be cut by 1600 in the coming months and drop to about 5000 by the end of the year as Iraqi security services assume more control.

Forces are expected to remain at Basra Palace until late summer with the bulk of British troops remaining at Basra Air Station to support the Iraqis.