US-trained Iraqi forces have been deployed in Iran posing as the Iranian Basij militias to take part in the brutal crackdown on the recent protests, i24NEWS learned from a credible source.
According to a report obtained exclusively by i24NEWS, some 100 Iraqi commandos wearing Basij uniforms crossed the border between the two countries overnight on Nov. 16.
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They are said to have taken part in the operations against the protesters in the cities of Kermanshah, Javanrud and Marivan in Iran's Kurdish-dominated west.
Their deployment reportedly followed a meeting between Iranian military leaders and Lahur Talabani, the chief of the Iraqi Kurdish Zanyari intelligence agency and a founding member of the Counter Terrorism Group – an elite fighting force established with the help from US military and the CIA.
Now, the report says, the Iraqi Kurdish counterterrorism operators led by Talabani, a US ally, are apparently doing the bidding of Qassem Soleimani, leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds force.
Fighters from Afghan Fatimiyoun Brigade and Pakistani Zainabiyoun Brigade, both of them being Shiite militias aligned with Iran's Quds force, have also been deployed in the crackdown.
i24NEWS security expert, Matthias Inbar, has been able to verify the report independently with former US security officials.
"It makes sense to me," one of the sources told Inbar. "Soleimani encourages Afghans to join the Afghan army to be trained by the US special forces and then deploys them to Syria as part of the Fatimiyoun, so it's a tactic they've used."
In mid-November, Iran was shaken by a tide of public unrest, some of the worst to hit the Islamic republic in decades.
With the unrest quelled in a crackdown that left at least 143 people killed, according to Amnesty International, the US said it was collecting evidence of abuse, with sanctions to follow.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS
