Iran Connection Alleged in Iraq Rocket Attack on UN Chief

[Jcrowley]

Iran Connection Alleged in Iraq Rocket Attack on UN Chief

A rocket presumably fired by Iraqi armed insurgents on Thursday exploded some 50 m from where UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki in Baghdad’s Green Zone. Ban paid an unscheduled visit to Baghdad on Thursday.
The rocket exploded during a press conference at the prime Minister’s residence, agencies reported. AP said the Katyusha rocket was fired from a mainly Shiite area on the east bank of the Tigris River. The press conference was being held at the residence in the Green Zone on the river’s west bank, which houses Iraqi government buildings and foreign embassies and is heavily guarded by U.S. forces and located. The 8 km-range Katyusha rockets, which were manufactured in the Soviet Union, were used by Iran during its war with Iraq between 1980 and 1988. The Shiite armed organization in Lebanon Hezbollah also occasionally uses them, fueling suspicions that it is backed by Iran.


UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reacts to a loud explosion during a press conference with Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Thursday in this video grab./ REUTERS/Iraqi TV


The U.S. accuses Iran of providing financial support, weapons and personnel to Shiite insurgents in Iraq, and there is speculation that Tehran was behind Thursday’s rocket attack aimed at an international figure. Iran faces a huge political risk if U.S. investigators find that the rocket was the model deployed by Iran.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200703/200703230012.html