Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Daily News
October 14, 2007 By James Gordon Meek, Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military has been steadily building a case against Iran lately, accusing the country's ruling mullahs of arming Shiite militias and killing troops with roadside bombs.
President Bush's war planners turned up the heat last week when the top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, charged that Tehran's ambassador in Baghdad is a card-carrying operative of the Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force.
U.S. officials charge that the Quds Force is training and arming Iraqi "surrogates," made up of Shiite "Special Groups Militias," who smuggle in the most deadly type of roadside bomb - explosively formed penetrators. The weapon has killed more than 200 American troops by piercing their vehicles' armor.
What's not clear, however, is whether Quds Force is freelancing in Iraq or acting at the behest of Tehran, sources say.
Petraeus' broadside at the Iranian envoy wasn't off the cuff. Bush's UN ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, a former ambassador to Iraq, said the mullahs are using the Quds Force as an instrument, just as they did when deposed dictator Saddam Hussein was in power.
"The manifestation of that is that the [Iranian] ambassador to Iraq is a [Revolutionary] Guard official rather than a diplomat in charge," Khalilzad told the Daily News.
Petraeus' command has suddenly stepped up an offensive this month - both public and tactical - against the Special Groups, with dozens killed or captured. The U.S. also has heralded seizures of what it says are Iranian-made mortars, bombs and hand grenades - no matter how small the cache.
Since Sept. 25, the military also has announced a dozen other missions targeting Iran's pals:
*In late September, the U.S. nabbed 20 alleged militiamen, including one Iraqi-Shiite operative "believed to have direct communication with senior Special Groups members as well as ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Corps-Quds Force."
*On Oct. 3, Iraqi forces arrested a suspected weapons smuggler who led a Special Groups assassination cell and "an Iranian explosively formed penetrator ring," the military said.
*U.S. forces on Oct. 5 went after a Special Groups leader "believed to be associated with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force." An air strike killed 25 militants.
*Troopers from the 82nd Airborne Division on Oct. 8 captured three Special Groups members in Sadr City who allegedly smuggled bombs and were "bringing militants from Iraq into Iran."
October 14, 2007 By James Gordon Meek, Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military has been steadily building a case against Iran lately, accusing the country's ruling mullahs of arming Shiite militias and killing troops with roadside bombs.
President Bush's war planners turned up the heat last week when the top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, charged that Tehran's ambassador in Baghdad is a card-carrying operative of the Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force.
U.S. officials charge that the Quds Force is training and arming Iraqi "surrogates," made up of Shiite "Special Groups Militias," who smuggle in the most deadly type of roadside bomb - explosively formed penetrators. The weapon has killed more than 200 American troops by piercing their vehicles' armor.
What's not clear, however, is whether Quds Force is freelancing in Iraq or acting at the behest of Tehran, sources say.
Petraeus' broadside at the Iranian envoy wasn't off the cuff. Bush's UN ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, a former ambassador to Iraq, said the mullahs are using the Quds Force as an instrument, just as they did when deposed dictator Saddam Hussein was in power.
"The manifestation of that is that the [Iranian] ambassador to Iraq is a [Revolutionary] Guard official rather than a diplomat in charge," Khalilzad told the Daily News.
Petraeus' command has suddenly stepped up an offensive this month - both public and tactical - against the Special Groups, with dozens killed or captured. The U.S. also has heralded seizures of what it says are Iranian-made mortars, bombs and hand grenades - no matter how small the cache.
Since Sept. 25, the military also has announced a dozen other missions targeting Iran's pals:
*In late September, the U.S. nabbed 20 alleged militiamen, including one Iraqi-Shiite operative "believed to have direct communication with senior Special Groups members as well as ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Corps-Quds Force."
*On Oct. 3, Iraqi forces arrested a suspected weapons smuggler who led a Special Groups assassination cell and "an Iranian explosively formed penetrator ring," the military said.
*U.S. forces on Oct. 5 went after a Special Groups leader "believed to be associated with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force." An air strike killed 25 militants.
*Troopers from the 82nd Airborne Division on Oct. 8 captured three Special Groups members in Sadr City who allegedly smuggled bombs and were "bringing militants from Iraq into Iran."