The question is whether this report from Times Online is accurate or more of Tehran’s psych-ops plan:
IRAN has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British and American targets if the nation’s nuclear sites are attacked. According to Iranian officials, 40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action.
The main force, named the Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Revolutionary Guards, was first seen last month when members marched in a military parade, dressed in olive-green uniforms with explosive packs around their waists and detonators held high.
Which means they had to be VERY CAREFUL not to hit someone when they goose-stepped…MORE:
Dr Hassan Abbasi, head of the Centre for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 western targets had been identified: “We are ready to attack American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.� He added that some of them were “quite close� to the Iranian border in Iraq.
In a tape recording heard by The Sunday Times, Abbasi warned the would-be martyrs to “pay close attention to wily England� and vowed that “Britain’s demise is on our agenda�.
At a recruiting station in Tehran recently, volunteers for the force had to show their birth certificates, give proof of their address and tick a box stating whether they would prefer to attack American targets in Iraq or Israeli targets.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned last Friday that Israel was heading towards “annihilation�. He was speaking at a Tehran conference on Palestinian rights aimed at promoting Iran as a new Middle Eastern superpower.
In reality, none of this should be surprising. Should the U.S. actually attack Iran using tactical nukes, it stands to reason that there will be some form of intense retaliation from Iran and perhaps various terrorist groups. The question, as far as the U.S. is concerned, whether this would be stepped-up attacks on Americans abroad or some kind of attack on the homeland. Presumably Washington’s contingency plans take this into account as well. Presumably…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.