British: Reports say Iran 'paying Iraqis $500 a month' in Basra

Followers of radical Moqtada al-Sadr wave their pistols after Friday prayers in Basra yesterday.

IRANIAN agents are paying local Iraqis around the southern city of Basra as much as $500 a month to carry out attacks on coalition forces.
British Lieutenant Colonel Justin Maciejewski said contact with locals suggested that the “vast majority” of violence against British troops stationed in the city came from outside Iraq.

“We haven't found any 'smoking gun' but certainly all the circumstantial evidence points to Iranian involvement in the bombings here in Basra, which is disrupting the city to a great extent,” he added.

Lt-Col Maciejewski, who is the commanding officer at the British base at Basra Palace, went on: “Local sheikhs and tribal leaders here in Basra - who are desperate to prevent this violence escalating - are telling us that Iranian agents are paying up to $500 a month for young Basrawi men to attack us.

Read the rest at the Australian

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