[Sunday Times-UK] Uzi Mahnaimi - Iran is threatening to retaliate in Europe for what it claims is a daring undercover operation by Western intelligence services to kidnap senior officers in its Revolutionary Guard. Writing in Subhi Sadek, the Revolutionary Guard's weekly paper, Reza Faker, who is believed to be close to President Ahmadinejad, warned, "Iran has enough people who can reach the heart of Europe and kidnap Americans and Israelis." According to Iranian sources, several officers have been abducted in the past three months. Earlier this month, Ali Reza Asgari, former commander of the Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force in Lebanon and deputy defense minister, vanished during a trip to Istanbul. Last week it was revealed that Col. Amir Muhammed Shirazi, another high-ranking Revolutionary Guard officer, had disappeared. A third Iranian general is also understood to be missing - the head of the Revolutionary Guard in the Persian Gulf. "This is no longer a coincidence, but rather an orchestrated operation to shake the higher echelons of the Revolutionary Guard," said an Israeli source. Tehran is notorious for settling scores. When the Israelis killed Abbas Mussawi, Hizbullah's general secretary, in 1992, Iran's Quds Force blew up the Israeli embassy in Argentina in revenge.
2007-03-19 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive