Beltway Area Indymedia

The US is preparing to launch an attack against Iran, possibly within the next few days, according to media reports today. Targets including Iran’s nuclear facilities and military command and control centers may be hit as early as Friday, April 6th, using missiles and air attacks, according to reports that first appeared in Russian news outlets.

Quoting a Russian security official, the reports claim that US military forces in the Persian Gulf have almost completed their preparations for an attack, and cited the alarmingly precise time frame of “from 4 a.m. until 4 p.m. on April 6” for the potential start of hostilities. Friday is the Christian holiday known as “Good Friday”, on which Jesus Christ supposedly died while crucified.

The reports were picked up by the Jerusalem Post in Israel, before quickly spreading to other news outlets around the world, including the Associated Press and other major papers in the US.

The US has two aircraft carrier groups in the Persian Gulf, the USS John Stennis Carrier Group and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. A third carrier group, the USS Nimitz Strike Group, was moving into the Gulf in April, although this strike group will supposedly replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and not actually overlap with its presence in the region. In addition, the US has ground and support forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the region, totaling about a quarter of a million troops. These forces are augmented by the addition of NATO forces in Afghanistan, as well as British forces in Iraq, and an array of contract paramilitaries numbering in the tens of thousands.

The reports of an imminent US attack targeting Iran come amidst an ongoing crisis between the UK and Iran, over the Iranian seizure of 15 British Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines. Iran insists the troops were operating illegally inside Iranian waters, while the UK maintains that their forces were searching vessels within Iraqi waters. On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair stated described the next 48 hours as “crucial” in reaching a peaceful settlement to the dispute, warning that the UK will make “increasingly tougher decisions” if no progress is made through diplomacy.

The reference to a 48 hour time frame closely corresponds to the time that would presumably exist if a US attack were to be launched the following day, particularly within the early morning hours suggested by the Russian intelligence sources.

The Iranian seizure of British troops may have been at least partly in response to the US seizure of Iranians in Iraq earlier this year, according to a report by the UK paper The Independent. The true intent of the January raid, the report claims, was to capture the visiting head of the Iranian National Security Council and the chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, both of whom were in the Iraqi city of Arbil. The US attempt failed, however, resulting instead in the capture of five lower level Iranian officials at an Iranian liaison office.