Posted on 04/11/2007 9:31:59 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iranian intelligence operatives have been training Iraqi fighters inside Iran on how to use and assemble deadly roadside bombs known as EFPs, the U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday. Commanders of a splinter group inside the Shiite Mahdi Army militia have told The Associated Press that there are as many as 4,000 members of their organization that were trained in Iran and that they have stockpiles of EFPs, a weapon that causes great uneasiness among U.S. forces here because they penetrate heavily armored vehicles.
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell would not say how many militia fighters had been trained in Iran but said that questioning of fighters captured as recently as this month confirmed many had been in Iranian training camps.
"We know that they are being in fact manufactured and smuggled into this country, and we know that training does go on in Iran for people to learn how to assemble them and how to employ them. We know that training has gone on as recently as this past month from detainees debriefs," Caldwell said at a weekly briefing.
EFP stands for explosively formed penetrator, deadly roadside bombs that hurl a fist-size lump of molten copper capable of piercing armor.
In January, U.S. officials said at least 170 U.S. soldiers had been killed by EFPs.
Caldwell also said the U.S. military had evidence that Iranian intelligence agents were active in Iraq in funding, training and arming Shiite militia fighters.
"We also know that training still is being conducted in Iran for insurgent elements from Iraq. We know that as recent as last week from debriefing personnel," he said.
"The do receive training on how to assemble and employ EFPs," Caldwell said, adding that fighters also were trained in how to carry out complex attacks that used explosives followed by assaults with rocket- propelled grenades and small arms.
"There has been training on specialized weapons that are used here in Iraq. And then we do know they receive also training on general tactics in terms of how to take and employ and work what we call a more complex kind of attack where we see multiple types of engagements being used from an explosion to small arms fire to being done in multiple places," he said.
The general would not say specifically which arm of the Iranian government was doing the training but called the trainers "surrogates" of Iran's intelligence agency.
Caldwell opened the briefing by showing photographs of what he said were Iranian-made mortar rounds, RPG rounds and rockets that were found in Iraq.
Also Wednesday, Iraqi Cabinet ministers allied to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to quit the government to protest the prime minister's lack of support for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal.
Such a pullout by the very bloc that put Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki in office could collapse his already perilously weak government. The threat comes two months into a U.S. effort to pacify Baghdad in order to give al-Maliki's government room to function.
Meanwhile, bodies lay scattered across two central Baghdad neighborhoods after a raging battle left 20 suspected insurgents and four Iraqi soldiers dead, and 16 U.S. soldiers wounded, witnesses and officials said.
The fighting Tuesday in Fadhil and Sheik Omar, two Sunni enclaves, was the most intense since a massive push to pacify the capital began two months ago.
Al-Sadr's political committee issued a statement a day after al-Maliki rejected an immediate U.S. troop withdrawal.
"We see no need for a withdrawal timetable. We are working as fast as we can," al-Maliki said on his four-day trip to Japan, where he signed loan agreements for redevelopment projects in Iraq.
"To demand the departure of the troops is a democratic right and a right we respect. What governs the departure at the end of the day is how confident we are in the handover process," he said, adding that "achievements on the ground" would dictate how long American troops remain.
Al-Maliki spoke a day after tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of two Shiite holy cities, on al-Sadr's orders, to protest the U.S. presence in their country. The rally marked the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad at the hands of American forces.
"The Sadrist movement strongly rejects the statements of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in which he stood by the continued presence of occupation forces despite the will of the Iraqi people," said the statement, a copy of which was obtained by the AP. "The Sadrist movement is studying the option of withdrawing from the Iraqi government—a government that has not fulfilled its promises to the people," it said.
"We are serious about withdrawing," it added.
It would not be the first time the Sadrists, who hold six seats in the Cabinet, left al-Maliki's government.
Al-Sadr's ministers and 30 legislators boycotted the government and parliament for nearly two months to protest a November meeting between al-Maliki and President Bush in Jordan.
The statement expressed anger over the Baghdad security plan launched Feb. 14, calling it "unfair." Iraqi and U.S. troops have been targeting members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which has been blamed for sectarian killings.
Later in the day, the head of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, Nassar al- Rubaie, said U.S. troops had taken over al-Sadr's office in the city of Diwaniyah, the scene of weekend clashes between U.S. and Iraqi troops and al-Sadr's militiamen.
"We say that this matter is very dangerous and we put the blame on the Iraqi government for the American destruction of the country," he said. "We have thought before that sovereignty in Iraq is incomplete, but now we say that sovereignty doesn't exist in Iraq," al-Rubaie said.
Caldwell said he has no information about the alleged takeover of the office.
Iraqi soldiers held a security cordon around Fadhil, and residents hid frightened in their homes, a witness told the AP by telephone, on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety.
The Muslim Scholars Association, a Sunni group, issued a statement quoting witnesses as saying Tuesday's battle began after Iraqi troops entered a mosque and executed two young men in front of other worshippers. Ground forces used tear gas on civilians, it said.
"The association condemns this horrible crime carried out by occupiers and the government," the statement said.
But the witness in Fadhil said the two men were executed in an outdoor vegetable market, not in the mosque. The Iraqi military was not immediately available to comment on the claim.
The U.S. military said the battle began after American and Iraqi troops came under fire around 7 a.m. during a routine search operation. Helicopter gunships then swooped in, engaging insurgents with machine gun fire, the military said.
Some Arab TV stations reported a U.S. helicopter was shot down in the fight, and showed video of a charred piece of mechanical wreckage that was impossible to identify. Caldwell said four helicopters sustained minor damage but were able to return to base. He confirmed that one Apache gunship had dropped a missile pod as it left the area.
Caldwell said 13 of the 16 wounded Americans had returned to duty and that 20 suspected insurgents were killed and 30 wounded, he said.
the Iranians. They are allowed to kill our guys with total impunity
The question is why on earth does our President Bush allow it. At least during Nam there was an excuse to hold back, we had the biggest nuclear power (USSR) and the largest army in the world (China) backing N. Vietnam.
Today there is no country or countries that will go to war against US over Iran.
Yet the White House just talks.
Unless of course WE are stalling so as to build up enough supplies to be able to annihilate Iran quickly, perhaps learning from the Israeli experience in Lebanon.
“Unless of course WE are stalling so as to build up enough supplies to be able to annihilate Iran quickly, perhaps learning from the Israeli experience in Lebanon.”
I doubt it. Our gov’t (read: President Bush) allows Iran to kill our guys each day and piss in our face while laughing at us. I see no will whatsoever to stop, prevent or even discourage it.
I think the source of this complete failure and weakness is the State Department. But it just doesn’t matter. We have basicaly surrendered to Iran.
The point is that Iran supplying insurgents was a fairly likely scenario that should have been foreseen by military planners prior to embarking on the war in the first place.
From Iran’s point of view they have an enemy encamped on their flank, of course the obvious action is to leverage their proxies (ie the radical Shiites) to make life difficult for the US. A ten year old playing Age of Empires could have figured that out.
People on this thread seem to have forgotten that all the fleet has just gotten into place.
And that the evidence of Iran’s murderous meddling is becoming more and more deliberately publicized.
And that the seizure of the British personnel needs responding to.
And that the setting of international opinion is a requisite to armed action.
And that action on Iran - even the evident possibility of it - is going to assuredly affect oil prices. Why should the President or anyone else deliberately raise oil prices prior to an attack by making noisy threats?
That would just give the Democrats another attack theme
Deliberate and resolute actions, not words, are needed. And they are surely in the works - most likely coming sooner rather than later.
The idea is to isolate Iran - not ourselves.
And to provide basis for governments to support us, when there are agitating sectors within those countries urging that their governments oppose us. That is crucial in such situations as Pakistan.
There are situations where it is imperative to go it alone (as the Brits should have done on the piracy), but in the case of striking Iran there has to be a show of good cause because for, one thing, we have to deal with all the Arab countries - four of which together in the Middle East hold about 40 percent of the world’s petroleum reserves (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.)
Methodical discipline is a companion of successful warfare.
four of which together in the Middle East hold about 40 percent of the world’s petroleum reserves (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.)
Instead we give THEM the supposed capability to hurt US more than we can hurt them.
Of course if we don’t want to disturb anyone’s opinion than yes a flea on a camels nose will be able to hurt us.
BUT we are THE Superpower of this entire earth. Its just we have leaders who are afraid to use that POWER. They think the cost in the long run will be to great. They fail to value correctly the lives of American citizens who will soon be vaporized if we continue to wait for the world to back US.
Crush the enemy like we did in WW2 or let them slip out of our killing zone like in Vietnam.
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