posted January 27, 2007 12:32 AM              

Tue Dec 19 2006

WASHINGTON, 27 January 2007 — It was a busy day yesterday in Washington for those covering President George W. Bush. The Washington Post set the pace by announcing that the president has authorized the American military to kill or capture Iranian agents in Iraq, citing government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the plan.

This, while Bush met with top generals to push ahead with his new Iraq war strategy, despite growing opposition within his own Republican Party.

But it is the news that US troops now have the authority to target any member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, as well as officers of its intelligence services believed to be working with Iraqi militias, that rattled Washington the most.

Although the policy does not extend to Iranian civilians or diplomats, and US forces are not known to have used lethal force against any Iranian to date, the Bush administration officials have been urging top military commanders to exercise the authority.

The move, approved last year, is part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran’s influence across the Middle East and to force it to give up its nuclear program which the West believes is for nuclear weapons and not energy, the newspaper said, citing unidentified officials.

Bush himself said yesterday US forces in Iraq have authority to protect themselves against Iranians attempting to launch attacks inside Iraq. “It makes sense that if somebody is trying to harm our troops or stop us from achieving our goals or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them,” Bush said. “It’s an obligation we all have to protect our folks and achieve our goals.”

The president was speaking to reporters after talks with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Army Gen. David Petraeus, who was confirmed hours earlier by the US Senate to take command of the Iraq war.

“The president and his national security team over the last several months have continued to receive information that Iranians were supplying IED equipment or training that was being used to harm American soldiers,” National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. Several Iranian officials have been detained in three US raids over the past month.

“It seems unlikely to me that this kind of saber rattling will deter Iran from anything. In fact encouragement of its activities is the likely outcome,” a US military defense contractor, who did not want to be identified, told Arab News.

“Although hostilities have yet to break out into the open, this is another indication that relations between the United States and Iran are taking an ever more dangerous route,” the contractor said.