Tehran Accuses US Of Abducting Diplomat In Baghdad.The Iranian government on Feb. 6 accused the US of complicity in the kidnap of one of its diplomats in Iraq, in an incident which might inflame already tense relations between Washington and Tehran. The Iranian government said Jalal Said Jalal is the district manager of the Noorgal district in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border.[1] Jalal was an anti-Taliban militia leader, prior to the ouster of the Taliban. Sharafi, second secretary at Tehran's embassy in Baghdad, was seized on Feb. 4 by gunmen who it claimed "operate under the supervision of the American forces in Iraq", the official IRNA IRNA Islamic Republic News Agency IRNA Iranian News Agency IRNA Israel Resource News Agency reported. An Iraqi official was quoted by Reuters as saying Sharafi was snatched in the central Karrada district of Baghdad by 30 gunmen wearing the uniforms of a special Iraqi army The Iraqi Army is the army of Iraq, active in various forms since the country was formed in the aftermath of World War I. Today, it is a component of the Iraqi Security Forces tasked with assuming responsibility for all Iraqi land-based military operations following the 2003 unit which often works with US forces in Iraq. Tehran's Ambassador to Baghdad Hasan Kazemi-Qomi said on Iranian television the kidnappers had used US vehicles and that the abduction Abduction Balfour, David expecting inheritance, kidnapped by uncle. [Br. Lit.: Kidnapped] Bertram, Henry kidnapped at age five; taken from Scotland. [Br. Lit. took place "within the framework of the US president's order to step up encounters with Iranians", adding: "Responsibility for this operation lies with American forces...those who kidnapped Jalal Sharafi...were not affiliated to [Iraq's] defence ministry, rather this operation was carried out under the supervision of a group connected to the Americans". The US military denied any of its units were involved in the incident. (The White House last month authorised its forces in Iraq to kill or capture Iranian agents deemed to be a threat. Diplomats are regularly targeted in Iraq, where armed factions engage in political assassination Assassination See also Murder. assassins Fanatical Moslem sect that smoked hashish and murdered Crusaders (11th—12th centuries). [Islamic Hist.: Brewer Note-Book, 52] Brutus conspirator and assassin of Julius Caesar. [Br. as well as abduction for ransom). The presence of Iranian diplomats in Iraq is particularly sensitive, in view of the bitter 1980-1988 war fought between the two countries. In 2004, Iranian diplomat Faridoun Jihani was kidnapped on a highway south of Baghdad by a Sunni insurgent INSURGENT. One who is concerned in an insurrection. He differs from a rebel in this, that rebel is always understood in a bad sense, or one who unjustly opposes the constituted authorities; insurgent may be one who justly opposes the tyranny of constituted authorities. group, who accused him of stirring sectarian conflict. He was released after two months. Last month US forces detained five Iranians working for an informal consulate in northern Iraq on suspicion of funding militant activity. It is unlikely that Tehran knows at this stage who abducted abducted Distal angulation of an extremity away from the midline of the body in a transverse plane and away from a sagittal plane passing through the proximal aspect of the foot or part, or away from some other specified reference point Sharafi. |
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