Iran's "invasion" of Iraq

AFP:

Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces have been spotted by British troops crossing the border into southern Iraq, The Sun tabloid reported on Tuesday.

Britain's defence ministry would not confirm or deny the report, with a spokesman declining to comment on "intelligence matters".

An unidentified intelligence source told the tabloid: "It is an extremely alarming development and raises the stakes considerably. In effect, it means we are in a full on war with Iran -- but nobody has officially declared it."

"We have hard proof that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have crossed the border to attack us. It is very hard for us to strike back. All we can do is try to defend ourselves. We are badly on the back foot."

The Sun said that radar sightings of Iranian helicopters crossing into the Iraqi desert were confirmed to it by very senior military sources.

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This is a rather strange story if nothing else because of the lack of effect by the British and US forces. If an invasion was taking place we have two carriers in the Gulf which could scramble fighter bombers in minutes to wipe out the Iranian choppers. There is no indication of anything like that happening and my guess is that such a contingency has been studied and an appropriate response readied. Artillery and rocket fire could also be quickly placed on the invasion route.

I suspect that all of those things would be done before anyone placed a call to a British tabloid.