U.S. Army silent on nine prisoners said to be Iranians

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The American military maintained official silence Monday, including to the Red Cross, about the reported detention of nine Iranians at the U.S. Army-run stockade in Kandahar.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which by treaty has oversight of such detainees, has waited since Saturday for the Army to confirm or deny it holds any Iranians, said Gian-Battista Bacchetta, the agency's chief in this southern Afghan city.

An Afghan politician familiar with the group's apprehension in western Afghanistan said Saturday it included a general in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. An Iranian government spokesman later denied any Iranians were in U.S. custody. The White House said the detainees were tied to Iran but their individual origins had not been determined.

The mystery of the Kandahar prisoners is the latest development in a simmering U.S.-Iranian dispute over what Washington complains are efforts by the Tehran government to buy allies in western Afghanistan and undermine the new U.S. influence in this country, whose unity is threatened by regional factionalism. Iran denies any interest in destabilizing Afghanistan.

Threat to relations

The U.S. detention of Iranian nationals in a third country -- possibly including a high-ranking officer -- could deepen U.S.-Iranian animosity.

The Afghan politician, royalist Izzatullah Wasafi, said the Iranian officer, whom he identified as a Gen. Razavi, was leading a group clandestinely distributing money and arms to western Afghan allies when they were seized by other Afghan forces last Tuesday.

The captives were transferred south to Kandahar province, whose governor, Gul Agha, is considered loyal to the new U.S.-supported central government. When the governor learned they were Iranians, however, he quickly transferred them to the custody of the U.S. military based at Kandahar's airport, said Wasafi, who has been involved in tracking the Iranian activities.

Held and interviewed

A U.S. military source unofficially confirmed Friday that an Iranian group was being held and interviewed at the airport, The New York Times reported, without identifying the official.

Each detainee at the Kandahar detention center must be registered with the Red Cross. No Iranians have been registered since the center was established in December, after a U.S.-led military campaign ousted Afghanistan's Taliban government.

Bacchetta of the Red Cross said he personally visited the base on Saturday and inquired of U.S. Army officers about the reported new group, which Wasafi said also included three Afghans, as well as six Revolutionary Guard members and three Iranian border guards.

"I asked the American authorities about their whereabouts," Bacchetta said. "Do you have them or not?"' He said he would wait another couple of days for a response, and "then we would step up our interventions."

Asked by The Associated Press to confirm or deny that an Iranian group was being detained, a U.S. military spokesman in Kandahar, Maj. A.C. Roper, said "policy" prevented discussion of individual detainees.

In Washington, Condoleeza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, said Sunday that a group in custody has "some relationship with Iran" but their individual origins had not been determined.