Iraq claims 'baseless': Russia

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service denied as “baseless” Pentagon claims that Moscow provided information to Saddam Hussein’s regime on US troop movements and plans during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in the latest spat in an increasingly tense bilateral relationship.

“Similar, baseless accusations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once,” intelligence service spokesman Boris Labusov said. “We don’t consider it necessary to comment on such fabrications.”

An unclassified Pentagon report released on Friday cited two captured Iraqi documents that said the Russians collected information from sources “inside the American Central Command” in Doha, Qatar, and that battlefield intelligence was provided to Saddam through the former Russian ambassador in Baghdad, Vladimir Titorenko.