Times: US, UK in secret border war with IRG

21/10/2007 The Sunday Times quoted British defense sources as saying that British special forces have crossed into Iran several times in recent months as part of a secret border war against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Al-Quds special forces.
"There have been at least half a dozen intense firefights between the SAS and arms smugglers," the report said.

It added that an SAS squadron is carrying out operations along the Iranian border in Maysan and Basra provinces with other special forces, the Australian SAS and American special-operations troops. Last week, Bob Ainsworth, the armed forces minister, said the Ministry of Defense was unable to say whether British troops had killed or captured any Iranians in Iraq. The ministry declined to comment.

There have been persistent reports of American special-operations missions inside Iran preparing for a possible attack. But the sources, according to the Times, said British troops were solely stopping arms smuggling. The report said the fighting comes amid an increase in US and British intelligence operations against Iran. "Britain’s forces have more than 70 Farsi experts monitoring Iranian communications, and the intelligence is shared with the United States," it stated.