January 11, 2007
American forces backed by helicopters raided the
Iranian consulate in the mainly Kurdish city of Erbil in northern Iraq before
dawn today, detaining at least five Iranian employees in the building and
seizing some property, according to Iraqi and Iranian officials and witnesses.
Kurdish forces were in control of the consulate
building when a reporter went there after the raid. There was broken glass on
the pavement outside the building, and no sign of the Iranian flag.
A statement from the United States military
today did not mention the Iranian consulate specifically, saying only that six
people were taken into custody in “routine security operations” in the Erbil
area. Other than saying they were “suspected of being closely tied to activities
targeting Iraqi and Coalition forces on Jan. 11,” the statement did not say who
the people were.
But the American statement did warn that “the
Coalition will continue to work with the Government of Iraq to prevent
interference by hostile actors in Iraq’s internal security affairs.”
Statements by the Iranian government were more
explicit. A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said that United
States forces arrested five Iranian staff members at the consulate early this
morning, and confiscated computers and documents.
The Iranian embassy in Baghdad has sent a
letter of protest to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, Mr. Hosseini told the IRNA news
agency.
A statement issued by the presidency office in
Kurdistan said the American forces were backed by helicopters.
Noting that the consulate was protected by
international agreement and that the regions under Kurdish control have been
fairly calm, the statement said the raid “does not help the efforts to bring
peace, stability and security to the rest of Iraq.”
The statement suggested that the raid was an
unwelcome surprise to the Kurdish authorities. “It is better to inform the
Kurdistan government before taking actions against anybody,” it said.
Muhamad Ahmad, a designer who lives near the
consulate in Erbil, said he was awakened by the sound of gunfire and
helicopters, which is unusual in the relatively calm Kurdish areas of Iraq.
The incident appears to be the most direct
recent confrontation between the United States military and Iranian interests in
Iraq. American officials have long accused Iran of sending weapons and money
into Iraq to fuel violence; in December the American forces detained two Iranian
men in Baghdad and accused them of running guns and planning sectarian attacks.
The men were later released.
Today’s developments come at a time when
tensions are high between Iran and the United States over Iran’s nuclear
program, which it says is for energy purposes, and over what Washington has
called Iran’s instigation of sectarian and anti-American violence in Iraq.
Together with the incident in December, the consulate raid called into question
the extent of control the Iraqi state has over its own affairs.
Last night, President Bush rekindled his
argument that a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq would, among other
things, embolden Iran to develop nuclear weapons. He again accused Iran of
contributing “material support” for attacks on American forces.
Today, Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the
joint chiefs of staff, said in a news conference in Washington that the United
States would act to defend American troops from attackers in Iraq, regardless of
the nationality of the attackers.
He said that “with regard to those who are
physically present trying to do harm to our troops, regardless of nationality,
we will go after them and defend ourselves.”
Asked by a reporter if there would be more
raids like the one this morning, the Secretary of State,
Condoleezza Rice, speaking alongside General Pace, said the United States
has warned Syria and Iran not to destabilize the Iraqi government.
“But we leave to those who deal with issues of
force protection how these raids are going to be taken out,” she said. “I think
you’ve got an indication of that in what has been happening, which is, the
networks are identified, they are identified through good intelligence. They are
then acted upon.”
Mr. Hosseini, the Iranian spokesman, also
reacted sharply to the speech Mr. Bush gave last night about Iraq, telling the
news agency that the dispatch of more than 20,000 additional American troops to
Iraq was intended to prolong the United States occupation, and that it would
increase insecurity and tension.
Referring to Mr. Bush’s accusations that Iran
and Syria were interfering in Iraq’s domestic affairs, Mr. Hosseini said that
Washington was seeking “pretexts for its failed policies” in Iraq.
IRNA also quoted an Iraqi Kurdish security
official, whom it did not name, as saying that Kurdish forces were responsible
for maintaining security in Erbil, including protecting the consulate. American
forces “disarmed the Kurdish guards of the consulate and used force to enter the
building,” IRNA quoted the Kurdish official as saying.
