US boosts secret missions in Iran (The Australian)

  U.S. military and special-operations teams reportedly have increased their activities inside Iran, entering from Iraq to gather intelligence and to pursue Iranian operatives.

  The Australian

  Feb. 27, 2007 -- WASHINGTON -- The United States is reportedly stepping up covert operations in Iran in a new strategy that risks sparking an "open confrontation" with the Islamic republic.

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  U.S. military and special-operations teams had increased their activities inside Iran, entering from Iraq to gather intelligence and to pursue Iranian operatives, reports said Sunday.

  Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh claimed in an article in The New Yorker that U.S. clandestine operations in Iran, Syria and the wider region had been "guided by Vice-President Dick Cheney," relying heavily on Saudi Arabia and on the Saudi national security adviser, Prince Bandar.

  Citing unnamed sources, the report said the U.S. Defense Department had recently formed a special planning group to prepare for possible attacks on Iran "that canbe implemented, upon orders from the President, within 24 hours."

  The planning group had in the past month turned its focus from targeting Iran's nuclear sites and attempting to oust the Tehran leadership to hitting targets "involved in supplying or aiding militants in Iraq."

  "A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to al-Qa'ida," the article said.

  "The 'redirection,' as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims."

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