Now it starts; Iranian special forces take a hand in No Iraq

Iranian Special Forces Take a Hand
Ramin Mostaqim - IPS 4/1/03

They are called the Badr Brigade, and people inside the northern border of Iraq have feared them for years. The Teheran-backed force is now gearing itself to become a thorn in the side of the U.S. and British forces.

TEHERAN, Apr 1 (IPS) - They are called the Badr Brigade, and people inside the northern border of Iraq have feared them for years. The Teheran-backed force is now gearing itself to become a thorn in the side of the U.S. and British forces.

The Badr Brigade with a reported strength of about 4,000 is preparing for a proxy war against the U.S.-British forces in northern Iraq, according to well-placed sources.

It was created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1980 to fight the Iraqi regime. The brigade comprising mostly Shia dissidents was trained to wage guerrilla warfare against Iraqi forces during Iran's war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988. They were trained also to provide close support to Iranian regular forces during that war.

On the face of it the Badr Brigade is now a unit of the Iraqi Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution, a Shia group in northern Iraq. The assembly is headed by Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer Hakim based mostly in Teheran and occasionally in Kuwait.

But there is little doubt that this brigade is funded and trained by the Iranian revolutionary guards. The Iranian forces have recently been seen training the Badr Brigade near Miadan town north of Khaneqain in northern Iraq.

Days before the war in Iraq the Badr Brigade held a parade as a show of strength in Suliamany. It was as much a show of support to Iraq as a message to Iranian opposition groups based in northern Iraq such as the Marxist group Komeleh, the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party seeking autonomy for an Iranian Kurdistan and the Mojahedin Khalq Iran, another Iranian opposition group with offices around Baghdad, Basra and Khaneqain.

The Badr Brigade is not alone in playing the Iranian card within Iraqi territory. It is backed by the Komeley-e-Islami (Islamic Society), Jondul Islam (Troops of Islam) and Ansar Al-Islam (Companions of Islam).

Members of these groups have been targeted in U.S. bombardment. Members of Komeley-e-Islami are reported to have suffered casualties and vacated their bases in Khormal, Piyare and Tavileh close to the Iran border following the bombing.

Other groups supporting the Badr Brigade are reported to have slipped into the mountains between Iran and Iraq for the time being.

But many members of the Badr Brigade remain in place in northern Iraq, though they are scattered, according to well-placed government sources.

A professor from Teheran University who declined to be named says the proxy war that the U.S. forces will fight with the Badr Brigade will test the Iranian resolve to fight the U.S. "and define future battles the U.S. wages to topple the Islamic regime in Iran and to deal with a country it regards as a part of the axis of evil."

Given Washington's warnings to Iran over the last few days, some predictions are being made in Teheran that the U.S. will attack Iran in October. Most serious political analysts and Western diplomats, however, dismiss these predictions.

But in a complete turnaround from the war with Iraq in the eighties, the Iranian government is fully backing the Saddam Hussein government against the U.S. and British forces. The state-run media calls this a "war of hegemony" or a "war for oil".

Dozens of journalists from state-sponsored media have been sent to northern Iraq to report the fighting there, and to put an official spin on developments. Their version has suggested so far that U.S. forces are beginning to find themselves in the quagmire of another Vietnam.

"The Republican Guards in Iraq have put up fierce resistance against the invading forces," says Hassan Mohebbi, a member of an Iranian militia force. "But we will turn Iran into a graveyard for Americans because we are far more dedicated to our Islamic cause than the guards of Saddam."

The dangers of war are far more apparent in the south of Iran than in Teheran. Iraqi troops are a familiar sight at border check points. At the Iranian port Abadan across from the captured Iraqi port Umm Qasr windows have shaken from the shock waves from bombardment in Iraq.

These areas have a large Arabic population. They are preparing for the refugees, and they are preparing also for the long-term tremors of the U.S. attack that will be felt in Iran.