http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IE10Ak02.html
BAGHDAD and IRBIL, Iraq - At 3am on January 11, a fleet of US helicopters made a sudden swoop on the long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Irbil in northern Iraq. Their mission was to capture two senior Iranian security officials, Mohammed Jafari, the deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the head of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
What made the US raid so extraordinary was that both men were in Iraq at the official invitation of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who held talks with them at his lakeside headquarters at Dokan in eastern Kurdistan. The Iranians had then asked to see Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, in the Kurdish capital Irbil. There was nothing covert about the meeting, which was featured on Kurdish television.
In the event, the US attack failed. It was only able to net five junior Iranian officials at the liaison office that had existed in Irbil for years, issuing travel documents, and which was being upgraded to a consular office by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad.
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