DAR AL HARB - U.K.: ENGLAND HAD WARNING ABOUT RETALIATION FROM IRAN FOR THE CAPTURE OF 5 IRANIANS IN IRAQ

Let me say this first:

Whether or not the Brits had a warning, what the Iranians did is wrong, they shouldn't have done it and the response should have been swift and severe...


Intelligence chiefs told of Iran's reprisal threat
Gethin Chamberlain, Tim Shipman and Kay Biouki in Teheran, Sunday Telegraph

British Intelligence chiefs were warned in January to expect reprisal attacks from Iran after America detained five suspected Iranian intelligence officers in Iraq.

Although the CIA alert led to the United States raising its official security threat level throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, Britain did not follow suit.The warning came after the US received credible information that Iranian-backed extremists were plotting attacks on Western targets.

American intelligence analysts told their British counterparts that the arrest of the five Iranians would have a direct impact on southern Iraq. Crucially, they warned that there was evidence that Iran intended to step up attacks in the border area and around Basra, where British forces are based.

A security source said: "The intelligence was passed to the UK and was generally disseminated. The intelligence that led to the arrests showed that Iran was financing and facilitating operations on the border and in the South."

"But there was no raising of comparative threat levels by the British, even though the majority of casualties from Iranian weaponry have been the British, not the Americans. Perhaps we should have been more on alert."

Relations between Iran and the West have deteriorated in recent months due to the diplomatic stand off over Teheran's nuclear programme and a growing anger in Washington and London over Iranian interference in Iraq.

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1) Intelligence chiefs told of Iran's reprisal threat