U.S. arrest of Iranians reportedly upsets Iraqi president

Story Highlights

• NEW: Forty bullet-riddled bodies found in Baghdad on Monday
• Tehran says "unpleasant consequences" will follow U.S. arrest of Iranians
• National Security Council confirms the arrest of at least four Iranians
• Seven gunmen are killed as a joint British-Iraqi force moves on a police station

Adjust font size:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi and Iranian authorities slammed the United States on Monday for having arrested several Iranians who were visiting Iraq.

A U.S. official said the Iranians were suspected of involvement in attacks against Iraqi security forces.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini warned that "this action is not justifiable by any international rules or regulations and will have unpleasant consequences," Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

A spokesman for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Talabani had invited the Iranians to the country, and the president was "unhappy" about the arrests.

The U.S. National Security Council confirmed that the American military arrested at least four Iranians in raids during the past week in Iraq, including two diplomats.

NSC spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the two diplomats were questioned, turned over to the Iraqi government and released.

At least two others, who are members of the Iranian military, remain in U.S. military custody while an investigation is conducted on whether they were involved in attacks on security forces in Iraq, Johndroe said.

The U.S. military has not responded to requests for comment.

The Bush administration has long accused Iran of interfering in Iraq's affairs.

"We suspect this event validates our claims about Iranian meddling, but we want to finish our investigation of the detained Iranians before characterizing their activities," Johndroe said. "We will be better able to explain what this means about the larger picture after we finish our investigation."

President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, and officials from the U.S. State Department and the Iraqi government are involved in the delicate discussions over the fate of the detainees, according to Johndroe.

Talabani's spokesman said the Iraqi president had invited the Iranian officials during his visit to Tehran. It was done "in the framework of an agreement to improve security in Iraq." The spokesman described the Iranians as "security officials."

Hosseini, the Iranian spokesman, said the Iraqi government is responsible for the Iranians' release because it invited them to Iraq and "the occupying forces must be answerable for international law based on their actions."

The arrests come amid escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear program. The United States and other Western nations are concerned Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Tehran says it simply wants nuclear energy and refuses to halt its nuclear program.

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution Saturday to impose sanctions against Iran for failing to suspend its nuclear program. In response, Iran said Sunday it had resumed centrifuge production at a nuclear plant and may drop out of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. (Full story)

British, Iraqi troops raid Basra police station

British and Iraqi soldiers raided an Iraqi police station Monday in the southern city of Basra where they suspected a rogue police unit was planning to kill 76 prisoners.

"The serious crimes unit themselves were guilty of serious crimes," said British Maj. Charlie Burbridge.

Burbridge said the rogue unit "would take people in the middle of the night and they would never appear again."(Watch attack on Basra prison )

Monday's raid, involving 1,000 troops, was ordered based on information the police were "likely to start executing the prisoners, so we had to move fast," he said. Seven gunmen were killed as the forces advanced on the station.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki authorized the raid through the Basra city security coordinator, Burbridge said.

The action was made easier by the earlier arrests of key leaders of the police unit, he said.

After the prisoners were removed, the soldiers destroyed the Jamiyat police station, Burbridge said.

Car bomb kills 10 in Baghdad

A bomb in a parked car detonated Monday afternoon near a parking lot in eastern Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 15 others, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official.

Elsewhere in the capital, a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body inside a bus Monday on the city's northern outskirts, killing at least two people and wounding seven others, an Interior Ministry official said.

Mortar rounds exploded Monday evening in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiya, killing two people and wounding one.

Iraqi police also found 40 bullet-riddled bodies in the capital Monday, an Interior Ministry official said.

Most of the bodies showed signs of torture; their hands were tied, and they were blindfolded. None of the bodies has been identified.

Roadside bomb kills U.S. soldier

In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, an insurgent in a suicide vest attack killed a student and a policeman at the entrance to Al Anbar University, the U.S.-led coalition said. Five policemen were wounded.

An American soldier was killed Monday when a roadside bomb detonated near a Multi-National Division patrol, the U.S. military said.

The soldier's unit was conducting a security patrol when the bomb exploded near one of the group's vehicles, killing the soldier and wounding two others, the military said.

The attack came a day after the unit completed a two-day operation uncovering weapons caches in the area, the military said. (Watch U.S. troops in Iraq open holiday gifts sent by strangers )

Two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday during enemy combat in Anbar, the volatile province west of Baghdad, the military said Monday.

There have been 83 U.S military deaths this month in Iraq, and the total during the Iraq war stands at 2,971, including seven civilian contractors of the Defense Department.

CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr in Tehran, Iran, Sam Dagher in Baghdad, Jomana Karadsheh and Suzanne Malveaux in Washington contributed to this report.

Tools:
Save |
Print |
E-mail |
Most Popular |

Next story in World

World

Church hits natural gas in urban drilling frenzy

Bishop Kenneth Spears always thought gifts from God came from above. He never imagined that the gifts would be hiding under his church in Fort Worth, Texas.