Iraqi official blames Golden Mosque attack on Iran

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

The deputy governor of the Iraqi province of Saladin, where the holy city of Samarra is situated, said preliminary investigation was pointing to Iran’s role in the bombing of the city’s revered Shiite shrine last week.

“The investigations carried out so far about the explosion in the resting place of Imam al-Hadi and Imam Hassan al-Askari in Samarra point to the involvement of the Iranian regime’s Intelligence Ministry”, Abdullah Hossein Jabbara announced. He was referring to Iran’s secret police, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, which is known to be actively operating in Iraq.

Jabbara said Iraqi security forces had obtained intelligence clearly showing that Iran was involved in carrying out “terrorist attacks” in the Sunni-dominated province and “assisting terrorists to create insecurity in Iraq”. READ MORE

Several prominent Sunni and independent Shiite figures have pointed out that Iran was the major party that stood to reap huge benefits from tensions between Sunnis and Shiites, at a time when U.S. diplomacy, spearheaded by Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, had succeeded in bringing together the various Iraqi factions to form a national unity government not under Iran’s influence.

Khalilzad has been the target of sharp attacks by Iran’s officials and state-run media and Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite figures, who are angered by his insistence that the Interior Ministry and the security forces must not be controlled by sectarian politicians.

UPDATE: According to InstaPundit, Greg Djerejian disagrees: "The chances of Iran being involved in the Samarra shrine bombing are somewhere between zero and less than zero. It’s almost as absurd as Ahmadi-Nejad blaming the Jews and Americans for it. . . . The trail is much simpler. It goes to al-Qaeda in Iraq, namely Zarqawi."

DoctorZin responds: First of all, Al Qaeda takes credit for its attacks. They have NOT taken credit for this. But it is also important to remember that Zarqawi has been spending much of his time inside of Iran. Lastly, Greg just dismisses the preliminary findings of those on the ground. Hmmmm.