Iran Focus: Baghdad, Apr. 09 – Two organised gangs responsible for a number of kidnappings and violent operations are run by a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to information obtained by sources close to the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin.

Iran Focus: Baghdad, Apr. 08 – Some four tons of illicit drugs imported from Iran were confiscated in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, according to an Iraqi daily. The Al-Mashreq daily wrote yesterday, “On Wednesday authorities in the southern Iraqi city of Basra announced that security forces had rounded up four tons of cannabis which had been smuggled from Iran”.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Apr. 08 – At least 1,500 anti-government protests, strikes, and clashes took place in Iran during the year that ended on March 20. More than 450 strikes, demonstrations, and gatherings by white- and blue-collar workers, were reported in state-run and opposition media.

Iran Focus: Baghdad, Apr. 08 – A prominent Iraqi daily accused Iran’s leadership of dispatching mercenaries to one of Shiite Iraq’s holiest cities.
The Al-Forat daily reported that Iranian agents were planning to infiltrate Karbala following the establishment of Iraq’s new interim-government.

Iran Focus: Washington, Apr. 07 – A leading Iran-policy group
in Washington discussed U.S. policy options towards the clerical state, in a conference on Capitol Hill yesterday, at the invitation of the Iran Human Rights and Democracy Caucus of the U.S. House of Representative.