Posted on 07/02/2007 7:29:19 AM PDT by nuconvert
U.S.: Iran helped in deadly Iraq strike
By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD - Iranian forces helped plan one of the most sophisticated militant assaults of the Iraq war — a January raid in which gunmen posed as an American security team and launched an attack that killed five U.S. soldiers, an American general said Monday.
U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner also accused Iran of using its Lebanese ally, the Shiite militia Hezbollah, as a "proxy" to arm Shiite militants in Iraq.
The claims were an escalation in U.S. accusations that Iran is fueling Iraq's violence, which the government in Tehran has denied. It was also the first time the U.S. military has said Hezbollah has a direct role — which, if true, would bring a dangerous new player into Iraq's conflict.
Hezbollah has denied any activities in Iraq, saying it operates only in Lebanon.
Bergner said a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative, Ali Mussa Dakdouk, was captured March 20 in southern Iraq. Dakdouk, a 24-year veteran of Hezbollah, was sent to Lebanon "as a surrogate for the Iranian Quds Force" to finance and arm militant cells to carry out attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops, he said.
The goal was to organize militants "in ways that mirrored how Hezbollah was organized in Lebanon," Bergner said. Hezbollah is one of the region's most disciplined and sophisticated militant groups, able to fight Israel's military to a near standstill in a war last summer.
The general also said that Dakdouk was a liaison between the Iranians and a breakaway Shiite group led by Qais al-Khazaali, a former spokesman for cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Bergner said al-Kazaali's group carried out the January attack against a provincial government building in Karbala and that the Iranians assisted in preparations. Al-Khazaali and his brother Ali al-Khazaali were captured with Dakdouk.
Dakdouk told U.S. interrogators that the Karbala attackers "could not have conducted this complex operation without the support and direction of the Quds force," Bergner said.
Documents captured with al-Khazaali showed that the Quds Force had developed detailed information on the U.S. position at the government building, "regarding our soldiers' activities, shift changes and defenses, and this information was shared with the attackers," Bergner said.
The Karbala attack was one of the boldest and most sophisticated against U.S. forces in four years of fighting in Iraq, and U.S. officials at the time suggested Iran may have had a role in it.
In the assault, up to a dozen gunmen posed as an American security team, with U.S. military combat fatigues, allowing them to pass checkpoints into the government compound, where they launched the attack. One U.S. soldier was killed in the initial assault, and the militants abducted four others who were later found shot to death.
On Monday, the U.S. military reported the deaths of five U.S. servicemembers killed in fighting a day earlier, including two soldiers who died in attacks in Baghdad and two soldiers and a Marine who died in fighting in western Anbar province. The deaths brought to 3,582 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.
The new accusations against Iran raise tensions between the two countries as Iraq is trying to organize a second round of direct talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in Baghdad. The U.S.-backed, Shiite-led Iraqi government, which has close ties to Iran, is pushing the two to ease their disputes to help reduce Iraq's turmoil, but a February meeting between the two sides made little headway.
Bergner said Iraqi extremists were taken to Iran in groups of 20 to 60 for training in three camps "not too far from Tehran." When they returned to Iraq, they formed units to carry out attacks, bombings and kidnappings.
"Our intelligence reveals that the senior leadership in Iran is aware of this activity," he said. He said it would be "hard to imagine" that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was unaware of the activity.
Hezbollah spokesmen in Lebanon said they were checking into the claims Dakdouk was a member of the group and would not comment. The group has in the past denied any activities in Iraq. In late 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said his government suspected that Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah might be supplying technology and explosives to Shiite Muslim militant groups operating in Iraq, but he provided no proof.
Hezbollah, he said, helps the Iranians as a "proxy ... to do things they didn't want to have to do themselves," Bergner said. He added that Hezbollah did not appear to have an extensive network in Iraq, saying Dakdouk was "being used specifically as a proxy by the Quds Force."
Dakdouk was captured with documents instructing the special groups on techniques, including how to attack a convoy, and a with a personal diary detailing meetings with Iraqi militants. Al-Khazaali also had documents with details on 11 separate attacks on U.S. force, Bergner said.
A total of 18 "higher-level operatives" from the Iranian-backed special groups have been arrested and three others killed since February, Bergner said.
This is has been the case with most attacks in Iraq. And the U.S. response is always the same: accuse Iran of interfering in Iraq.
Stop accusing Iran and start punishing Iran.
I guess President Bush forgot what act of war means.
I doubt that
The day is coming slowly, just as it did for Iraq, but it will get here.
Gordon Brown just relinquished his authority to declare war... maybe it’s catching.
We could proportionaly make short work of the threat of the Iranian regime...
But alas, I do believe the people who could make the descision to do so, have lost the will/resolve to take care of this...
See, the whole idea about finding out who’s really behind all of this continued (proxy) attacks after our victory over the former regime in Iraq, is a moot point...
We now know without a doubt who is behind the continued violence, now is the time to address it...And do so militarily...We do not need a consensus from the UN dweebs...We are done being targets to draw out these attacks...We simply need to make those sacrifices mean something...And do it now...
We no longer need an excuse (or permission) to offload ordinance (in the fun way) against the enemy...This has been a long time coming...And we need to honor that commitment to engage the threat, and stop being targets...
We can make very short work of the forces against us...I have extreme confidence in our ability to take care of the problem these days...
enough is enough...
.. and not to the Iranian government. But what is the difference except in the theory of political science.
Well, with the Dems, we will be lucky if they don’t offer to pay reparations.
Bush might or might not do anything, but after doing his best to destroy his own Party via flooding the USA with new Dem voters via the Amnesty and his only serious contribution to the illegals problem being to jail Border agents, not build the Fence and show no interest in seriously evicting current illegals, the urge of Repubs to support him in an expensive new war is not going to be strong.
There are likely a bunch of Repubs whose attitude is now the “Screw you Bush” that Bush Admin has been working so hard to instill.
Well, with the Dems, we will be lucky if they don’t offer to pay reparations...via tax increases to pay for the reparations.
Bush might or might not do anything, but after doing his best to destroy his own Party via flooding the USA with new Dem voters via the Amnesty and his only serious contribution to the illegals problem being to jail Border agents, not build the Fence and show no interest in seriously evicting current illegals, the urge of Repubs to support him in an expensive new war is not going to be strong.
There are likely a bunch of Repubs whose attitude is now the “Screw you Bush” that Bush Admin has been working so hard to instill.
“Iran does not officially acknowledge the existence of the Qods Force. Military experts and some exiled Iranians say it is a wing of Iran’s ideologically driven Revolutionary Guards that operates abroad. They say it reports directly to Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”
“Military experts and some exiled Iranians say .....”
“They say it reports directly .....”
“They say...” Lol. Just gossip and rumor I guess. Reuters doesn’t want to go out on a limb and report that they are indeed for real. Lol.
These things take time. That being said at some point soon (in the next couple of years) we will have to deal with Iran. If we are successful in Iraq that will deal a huge blow to the Mullahs.
Well, with the Dems, we will be lucky if they don’t offer to pay reparations...via tax increases to pay for the reparations
Don’t give them any ideas!
Then, why the fluck isn't Iran full of large smoking holes? Ooops, forgot it's up to our chicken spit politicians.
>>These things take time. That being said at some point soon (in the next couple of years) we will have to deal with Iran. If we are successful in Iraq that will deal a huge blow to the Mullahs.<<
True, these things do take time. But I think you have the sequence of events backwards. Considering that Iran and Syria are the principal pot stirrers in Iraq, I believe that success there is largely contingent on America forcing the mullahs and Bashar al-Assad to stop their meddling.
In other words, addressing the Iranian problem after we succeed in Iraq is a strategy for not succeeding in Iraq.
The day is coming slowly, just as it did for Iraq, but it will get here.
Unless too much time passes and Democrats end up controlling the WH AND Congress.
“The goal was to organize militants “in ways that mirrored how Hezbollah was organized in Lebanon,” Bergner said. Hezbollah is one of the region’s most disciplined and sophisticated militant groups, able to fight Israel’s military to a near standstill in a war last summer.”
This is a total myth, the Israelis routed the Hizballah forces. Israeli columns penetrated to the Litani River - no Hizballah forces penetrated into Israel, other than their missiles. You can’t take ground with missiles, though.
Standstill my ass.
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