(Telegraph-UK) Con Coughlin - Iran's Supreme Leader has ordered the country's Revolutionary Guards to intensify its campaign of terror attacks against the West and its allies in retaliation for supporting the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. According to Western intelligence officials, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to Qassem Suleimani, the Quds Force commander, following a recent emergency meeting of Iran's National Security Council to discuss the implications of the Assad regime's overthrow. "The Iranian regime now seems determined to retaliate for what they regard as the West's attempts to influence the outcome of the Syrian unrest," said a senior Western intelligence official. Damascus is Iran's most important regional ally, and the survival of the Assad regime is regarded as vital to sustaining the Iranian-backed Hizbullah militia which controls southern Lebanon. The Quds Force has recently been implicated in a series of terror attacks against Western targets, which intelligence officials believe were carried out by its Unit 400, which runs special overseas operations.
2012-08-23 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive