Iran Deploying Badr Into Iraq?

So all along the Pentagon’s wet dream has been for a “Shiite Rebellion” against the Iraqi government, “just like after the first Gulf War”. And so the Birtish troops play a waiting game outside Basra. What they are conveniently overlooking, of course, is that the Shiite militancy against the centrasl government in Iraq was directed, led by, and consisted of Islamist Badr militants. Once the US saw the way the wind was blowing the last time they backed away from invading Iraq, leaving Saddam’s regime to liquidate thousands of pro-Iranian Badr militants. The Badr gang aren’t making the same mistake this time: like the Turks they seem content to sit on the sidelines and see which way the cards fall before committing themselves. I noted earlier that the US was likely to stomp on any local anti-Saddam forces out of concern to establish their own unchallenged Iraqi hegemony:

Analysts in Tehran say that Badr corps troops were crossing into Iraq after having been based in Iran for 20 years; foreign journalists have been unable to confirm the reports as they are banned from most border areas. Some 1,500 Badr corps were observed deploying into northern Iraq before the war started. Formed in the Iran-Iraq war, the corps has 10,000 Iraqi Shias, believed to have been armed and trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards … Mr Rumsfeld’s warning on Friday that Badr troops would be treated as “combatants” suprised Tehran, as it has maintained contructive relations with Britain over the war and has allowed the council’s representatives to attend meetings of Iraqi opposition groups in Washington.

Earlier here.