The Telegraph is reporting today the Mahdi Army used Iranian money to recruit unemployed men and pay them up to $300 (£150) a month to carry out attacks against British soldiers. The leaked report details activities of British troops under the command of Major Christopher Job, of the 2nd Lancashire Regiment, between November 2006 and March 2007.
In the report, Major Job discloses that in the course of five months his base was attacked 350 times. Old State Building, which is in the centre of Basra, is the most-attacked British base in recent history.
In an attempt to discover who was behind the attacks, the officer says he established a network of informers, who supplied him with detailed intelligence on the actions of the insurgents and who was behind their funding.
The officer states that the reports of Iran’s involvement came from a network of 25 sources, which included a former Iraqi army general, prominent businessmen, local sheikhs and council leaders.
He writes: “We learnt from a number of our Key Leadership Engagements [local contacts] that the source of the problem was the level of unemployment in Basra.
The Telegraph is reporting that twenty-seven members of the Armed Forces died and dozens were seriously injured in southern Iraq between November 2006 and May 2007, the period that Major Job covers in his report.
Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP and a former infantry commander said: “This report makes it quite clear that Iran is directly involved in funding the insurgency.” He added: “The Government must confront Tehran over the deaths of British troops – anything else is appeasement.”
Eventually Iran will need to be dealt with. Hopefully our next President will make some ingenious argument that will persuade them they have been wrong all along.