Iranian DM deplores terrorist attack on Iraqi counterpart

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan condemned the Tuesday terrorist attack on the convoy of his Iraqi counterpart Saadoun Al-Dulaimi which wounded two of his bodyguards. In the message, Dehqan said he is pleased to hear the failure of the assassination attempt against Dulaimi. “I pray to God for the health of the Iraqi defense minister, success of the Iraqi government and prosperity of the Iraqi nation,” he said in his message on Wednesday. The Tuesday roadside bomb hit Dulaimi’s convoy as it traveled between Fallujah and Ramadi, “wounding two of his guards and damaging one of the vehicles,” Iraq's defense ministry said on its website. The bombing came after five senior officers, among them a divisional commander, and 10 other soldiers were killed Saturday during an operation against militants in Anbar, the same province in which Dulaimi’s convoy was traveling when it was attacked. The Iraqi government responded by launching an operation dubbed “Avenge the Leader Mohammed,” named after the divisional commander who was killed. “Military operations are continuing in Anbar 24 hours per day, and we are focusing on areas near the border,” a senior official said, adding there was a major deployment along the Syrian border to stop the movement of militants and weapons. On Monday, defense ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said Iraqi forces had destroyed two militant camps in Anbar. Such camps have proliferated in areas near the border with neighboring Syria, where a brutal civil war has bolstered militant groups and fueled violence in Iraq, Askari said at the weekend. He said aerial photographs and other information pointed to “the arrival of weapons and advanced equipment from Syria to the desert of western Anbar and the border of Nineveh province”. This has encouraged Al-Qaeda-linked militants to “revive some of their camps that were eliminated by security forces in 2008 and 2009,” Askari said, adding that aerial photos showed 11 militant camps near the border with Syria. “Photographs and intelligence information indicate that whenever there is pressure on armed groups in Syria, they withdraw to Iraq ... to regroup and then carry out terrorist operations in the two countries,” Askari said.