Iranian troops in Iraq?

More ominous news:
Sky news has just reported that a number of Iranian troops crossed the Iraq border yesterday,where they spent "several hours" at th Fatah(sp?)oil field.

I think the reporter said the oil field was in the south of the country.
Nothing was mentioned as to the reason for the incursion,but it sparked my interest what with the Iran Twitter hack story,and Obama seeming to say that he could not stop Isreal attack Iran.

I can find no source on the net as yet,nor can I find any details of the Fatah oil field.

If anyone finds any news links about this,please post them here.
Thanks.

[edit on 18/12/2009 by Silcone Synapse]

The only thing I can find is that there appears to be an oil refinery called "Fatah" in Iraq:

Guarding the Fatah oil refinery used to be a pretty straightforward job for Saif Mohammed. Insurgents hit only sporadically, and usually missed important targets.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Still can't find anything about the incursion though.
No further mention from Sky news yet.

Fisrt link I can find:

AFP NASIRIYAH: Iranian forces have taken control of a southern Iraqi oil well in a disputed section of the border on Friday, a US military spokesman told AFP.
"There has been no violence related to this incident and we trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between the governments of Iraq and Iran," the spokesman told AFP at Contingency Operating Base Adder, just outside the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. "The oil field is in disputed territory in between Iranian and Iraqi border forts," he said, adding that such incidents occur quite frequently. The Iranian forces occupied Well 4 in the Fauqa Field, part of a cluster of fields Iraq unsuccessfully put up for auction to oil majors in June. The field has estimated reserves of 1.55 million barrels.

www.thehimalayantimes.com...

So its th "Fauqa" oil field,and is in "disputed" territory.

So it's no big deal. Thanks for scaring everyone.

Sorry for the scare,
It seems to be one of the Iranians many incursions into Iraq,for what purpose is unclear-

A security source in the southeastern Maysan province, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Iranian troops made their way onto the Fakka oilfield, located just on the Iraqi side of the two countries' long desert border. The troops withdrew after several hours, the official said. It was not immediately clear why the troops would have undertaken such a move. According to Arabic-language television reports, Iranian troops entered the Iraqi oilfield and raised an Iranian flag.

uk.reuters.com...

Maybe it was a propaganda move,to get some film of the troops raising the Iranian flag,for Iranian news channels?
Although it could be something more sinister-possibly a reconnaissance mission to discover the oil fields weak points-in the event of an Israeli/US attack on Iran,the Iraqi oil fields would be on the list of Iranian targets IMO.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Or it could be Iran looking for some oil. The Iraq/Iran border is highly contested in a number of places, as we've seen on the southern stretch of the Shatt al Arab. Our forces have regularly crossed the border without knowing.