Up to 5,000 Iranian-backed Iraqi opposition forces have crossed into the northern area of Iraq from Iran with the goal of securing the frontier in the event of war, according to the Financial Times Wednesday.
Quoting high-ranking Iranian officials, the British daily said that the troops, with some heavy equipment, were nominally under the command of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, a leading Iraqi Shiite Muslim opposition leader who has been based in Iran since the year 1980.
A US State Department official told the daily that he was aware of reports that part of Hakim's Badr brigade had crossed into northern Iraq but declined to further comment.
The Badr brigade has been trained and equipped by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and could be regarded as a proxy force of the Iranian government, the Financial Times added.
A top Iranian official, who requested anonymity, told the paper the presence of Hakim's troops was defensive and aimed at countering a possible attack on Iran by the People's Mujahideen Organization, an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq and supported by President Saddam Hussein. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
