IRAQ

IRAQ

Developments

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered federal agents Friday to ride with Blackwater USA escorts of U.S. diplomatic convoys in Baghdad to tighten oversight after a shooting in which private guards are accused of killing 13 Iraqi civilians. She also ordered video cameras installed in Blackwater vehicles. The steps will require the State Department to deploy dozens of additional in-house Diplomatic Security agents to accompany Blackwater guards and are the first in a series of moves Rice is expected to take to boost control of contractors the agency relies on to protect diplomats in Iraq.

Iran has significantly escalated its involvement in Iraq, “raising the heat” by supplying more sophisticated weaponry that is used against U.S. targets and undermining progress made by the current U.S. troop increase, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al Rubaie said Friday. The number of detained Iranian agents and intercepted Iranian arms shipments this year represents only the “tip of the iceberg” of Tehran’s activity in Iraq, Rubaie told editors and reporters at The Washington Post.

Source: Combined dispatches