IRAQ - Iran Meddling.

The UK believes Iran's Revolutionary Guard is supplying explosives technology which is killing British soldiers in Iraq, including eight who died in separate bombings over the summer. The Associated Press on Oct. 5 quoted a senior UK official as saying Iran was backing neo-Salafi groups and other Sunni insurgents against the US and the Shi'ite-Kurdish government. The UK charge was repeated on Oct. 6 at a joint news conference in London by Prime Minister Tony Blair - with visiting President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, call-ing the insurgents terrorists and reiterating Iraq's gratitude to the US and Britain for their help in backing the country's democratisation.

While Tehran rejected the allegation, the UK Press Association said there was evidence Iran was in contact with Sunni insurgent groups battling coalition troops in Iraq. The official said Iran had given insurgents the technology - originally obtained from the Lebanese Shi'ite Hizbollah - used in a series of deadly attacks on British troops in southern Iraq over the summer. The soldiers were killed by powerful roadside bombs capable of punching through armoured vehicles, similar to those bombs now killing US troops and Iraqi forces.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said: "It's clear that they don't have any evidence. They accuse others while they are the source of insecurity, instability and crisis in Iraq". The UK official said Tehran could be trying to warn Britain off its demands that Iran abandon its nuclear programme or face isolation (see news15cIranNukeOct10-05).

More than 14m were registered to vote on Oct. 15. Registrations were rising markedly in the three Sunni provinces - Anbar, Salahudeen and Nineveh. The No campaign is concentrating its efforts in these areas, but organisers fear security measures against insurgents may hinder law-abiding voters. Anbar, where insurgents are most active and many Sunni tribes have never made peace with the US-backed government, will be most problematic. Organisers for the No campaign say the proposed federal structure would undermine Iraq's Arab character and cut off the mainly Sunni Arab provinces in Iraq from national petroleum wealth.

US forces continue to sweep through towns and villages in western Anbar, along the Syrian border in two very large offensives to push out the insurgents and facilitate voting. They have killed and captured a big number of neo-Salafi insurgents and their aim is to clear all towns near the Syrian border before Oct. 15.

UN officials have helped to distribute 5m copies of the draft constitution. Yet the text could still change before Oct. 15, as US diplomats try to secure Sunni Arab approval for the draft by proposing additional clauses. But Sunni Arab leaders made it clear by Oct. 8 they will defeat the draft in any case.

Sectarian tensions have spread across the region, dividing the government from the Sunni Arab world. The campaign of insurgent bombings, kidnappings and armed attacks has fuelled regional fears that Iraq may be sliding into civil war, although senior US military officials keep playing down that possibility.

In a TV interview on Oct. 2 Gen. John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East and of Lebanese origin who made some studies in Jordan, said: "The people of Iraq think of themselves as Iraqis, and people are not interested necessarily in seeing the fragmentation of the country. And I don't see that happening".

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr told Reuters al-Qaeda documents seized from the border town of al-Qa'im showed a plan to destabilise the Middle East by spreading neo-Salafi violence to the other countries. Foreign Arab neo-Salafi militants in Iraq now numbered fewer than 1,000, compared to between 2,500 and 3,000 six months ago, Jabr said, indicating that this could mark a redeployment ahead of a more widespread neo-Salafi campaign. In Syria, a number of Hizb u-Tahrir (HUT) militants, fellow neo-Salafis, were arrested last week for urging the revival of the Sunni caliphate to rule the world.