Iran releases video alleging US behind Paris attacks
The United States and its allies are the real culprits behind the terror attacks in Paris that killed 137 people, a propaganda video released by the office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei alleges.
The video claims that ISIS was created by the US in an effort to establish an alliance between al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Ba’athists − forces loyal to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein − inside the US-run Camp Bucca prison located near Iraq’s border with Kuwait.
While the Iranian regime offers no evidence for the claim of US involvement, the Washington Post reported last year that Islamic State probably evolved at Camp Bucca since many ISIS leaders including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi were incarcerated and probably met there.
The narrator of the video goes on to describe the incident where the US airdropped weapons to the Islamic State − which the pentagon claimed was an accident − as a deliberate attempt by the western allies to arm ISIS in order to further their own agenda.
“Yesterday we announced that one resupply bundle went astray and was destroyed,” Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Steve Warren said of that incident in October 2014. “We have since relooked at that and we have determined that a second bundle also went astray and probably fell into enemy hands.”
The US continues to fund and train ISIS under the pretext of supporting Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the video alleges.
The Iranian regime blames the US for destabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan by going after those two countries in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks instead of the “real perpetrators” − a possible reference to Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the 19 the hijackers.
The video claims that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan distracted public opinion from “Israeli crimes,” the spread of terrorism in West Asia while turning many Muslim countries against one another.
“What are we going to witness after the Paris attacks?” the narrator ominously asks.
Critics were quick to dismiss accusations of US involvement in Paris attacks as unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, and blamed Islamic fundamentalism for the recent surge of violence linked to ISIS.
“Five minutes after a terrorist attack, people say ‘some intelligence agency did it’,” Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Issa said on Al-Khaera Wal-Nas TV. “Some of the more stoned among them say that Americans did this to France.”
“Why would they do it to France,” he asked. “Why?”
“And they always respond with ‘in order to attack Islam’” he added. “Do they really need to kill people of their own country, society or culture to justify attacking terrorists?”
“Attacking terrorists requires no justification,” Issa said.
Iran is seen as a strong supporter of President al-Assad, with Iranian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah, and the Iranian paramilitary Al Quds force, helping the embattled leader cling to power.
While on the same side as Iran in the fight against the Islamic State, US President Barack Obama and other Western leaders involved in the Syrian conflict have made it clear that President al-Assad must step down.