Iraqi: Iran Smuggling Reports Exaggerated

[tiptoe]

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8BT4QDG0.html

August 10,2005 | BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's interior minister said Wednesday that reports of deadly roadside bombs being smuggled into this country from Iran are exaggerated.

On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said some insurgent weapons are entering Iraq from Iran although it's unclear whether they were coming from elements of the Iranian government or from other parties.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr told reporters that Iraqi security forces recently opened fire on a group of men carrying boxes near the Iranian border. The men dropped the boxes and fled back into Iranian territory. Inside the boxes were dynamite sticks with some wires.

"This is all that happened at the border and was very much exaggerated," Jabr said.
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Also:

Iraq downplays smuggling accusation

Reports that deadly roadside bombs have been smuggled into Iraq from Iran are exaggerated, the country's interior minister said.

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Interior Minister Bayan Jabr told reporters that Iraqi security forces recently opened fire on a group of men carrying boxes near the Iranian border. The men dropped the boxes and fled back into Iranian territory.

"This is all that happened at the border and was very much exaggerated," Jabr, a senior member in the Iran-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), said on Wednesday.

Appearing before parliament, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari dodged questions about the use of Iranian weapons by fighters in Iraq.

Al-Jaafari, who spent years in exile in Iran, referred questions to the interior and defense ministries.

<snip>

Iran on Wednesday rejected Rumsfeld's smuggling claims.

"With such contradictory declarations, Rumsfeld is trying to cover the US mistakes in Iraq," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

"The American leaders are under pressure from the international and regional public and the Iraqi Muslim people, and to justify their failings they invent a ficticious enemy," he said.

Rumsfeld said Tuesday that US intelligence officials believe a cache of powerful explosives discovered about two weeks ago in northeastern Iraq came from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Al-Jaafari said his country's security agencies would investigate the claims.

[KC21304]

1. Kind of reminds me of all those Iraqi troops

massed on the Saudi border in 1990. We had the satellite pictures. Well, maybe not.

[louis-t]

2. Rummy needs a good smackdown

Filthy, evil, sick bastard.