Crossword Genius

Assessed intelligence about part of army in foreign country (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

iraq

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'foreign country' is the definition.
'Iraq' can be an answer for 'country' (Iraq is an example). I am not sure about the 'foreign' bit.

'assessed intelligence about part of army in' is the wordplay.
'assessed' becomes 'r' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'intelligence' becomes 'iq'.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'part of' indicates taking the first letters (I've seen 'part' mean this).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
The initial letter of 'army' is 'a'.
'iq' going around 'a' is 'iaq'.
'r' put within 'iaq' is 'IRAQ'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for iraq that I've seen before include "war-torn nation" , "Asian area of conflict" , "Where Babylon may be found" , "Country of Baghdad and Basra" , "Country containing Basra" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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