I suppose they'll blame Bush for this, too...

[Update 8:15 pm CST]

This just in at Operation Iraqi Freedom:

MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ
PRESS DESK
BAGHDAD, Iraq
http://www.mnf-iraq.com
703.343.8790

Aug. 20, 2007
Release A070820a

Coalition Forces Kill Eight, Detain Three, Capturing a Special Groups Leader and Smuggler of Iranian Weapons

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces captured a weapons smuggler and Special Groups extremist leader before dawn Monday near Qasirin, north of Baghdad.

Coalition Forces conducted a raid targeting this known weapons distributor and Special Groups leader. The captured weapons facilitator was responsible for the storage and distribution of Iranian weapons. Coalition Forces intelligence suggests the weapons facilitator has traveled to and from Iran numerous times and is responsible for smuggling and distributing deadly explosively formed penetrators (EFPs). The target was also responsible for the distribution of those weapons to Special Groups operating throughout the Baghdad area and was connected to a very large network of weapons facilitators and Special Groups associates. The weapons smuggler is believed to have had ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force...

I believe you and courtneyme had dissenting points of view earlier, John?

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How long have we been warning that this sort of thing was going to happen? How long have people who study and analyze things been saying to you "Iran is preparing to do something."

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM?

I DO hate to do the "I told you so" thing, but sometimes, dammit, you just have to so that you can make a point.

Kurds flee homes as Iran shells villages in Iraq

· Guerrillas in clashes with Revolutionary Guards
· Conflict threatens stability of Kurdistan region

Michael Howard in Irbil
Monday August 20, 2007
The Guardian

Iraqi Kurdish officials expressed deepening concern yesterday at an upsurge in fierce clashes between Kurdish guerrillas and Iranian forces in the remote border area of north-east Iraq, where Tehran has recently deployed thousands of Revolutionary Guards.

Jabar Yawar, a deputy minister in the Kurdistan regional government, said four days of intermittent shelling by Iranian forces had hit mountain villages high up on the Iraqi side of the border, wounding two women, destroying livestock and property, and displacing about 1,000 people from their homes. Mr Yawer said there had also been intense fighting on the Iraqi border between Iranian forces and guerrillas of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), an armed Iranian Kurdish group that is stepping up its campaign for Kurdish rights against the theocratic regime in Tehran.

On Saturday the Iranian news agency Mehr said an Iranian army helicopter which crashed killing six Republican Guard members had been engaged in a military operation against PJAK. Iranian officials said the helicopter had crashed into the side of a mountain during bad weather in northern Iraq. PJAK sources said the helicopter had been destroyed after it attempted to land in a clearing mined by guerrillas. The PJAK sources claimed its guerrillas had also killed at least five other Iranian soldiers, and a local pro-regime chief, Hussein Bapir.

"If this escalates it could pose a real threat to the Kurdistan region, which is Iraq's most stable area," said Mr Yawar, who said he expected the Iraqi government and US officials in Iraq to make a formal protest to Tehran about the "blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty".

HOW MUCH MORE CLEARLY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SHOWN that Iran is just ITCHING to get into the mix with us?

More as it develops.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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