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A new twist on the well known problem of Iranian support for jihadists in Iraq. Well known, that is, to everyone but the Iraqi government, which is looking for more evidence that Iranian interference is still ongoing. "Hezbollah Trains Iraqis in Iran, Officials Say," by Michael R. Gordon for the New York Times, May 5:
BAGHDAD — Militants from the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been training Iraqi militia fighters at a camp near Tehran, according to American interrogation reports that the United States has supplied to the Iraqi government.
An American official said the account of Hezbollah’s role was provided by four Shiite militia members who were captured in Iraq late last year and questioned separately.
The United States has long charged that the Iranians were training Iraqi militia fighters in Iran, which Iran has consistently denied, and there have been previous reports about Hezbollah operatives in Iraq.
But the Americans say the reports of Hezbollah’s role at the Iranian camp offer important details about Iranian assistance to the militias, including efforts Iran appears to be making to train the fighters in unobtrusive ways.
Material from the interrogations was given to the Iraqi government, along with other data about captured Iranian arms, before it sent a delegation to Tehran last week to discuss allegations of Iranian aid to militia groups.
It is not known if the delegation confronted its Iranian hosts with the information, or how the Iranians responded.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government announced Sunday that it would conduct its own inquiry into accusations of Iranian intervention in Iraq and document any interference.
“We have experienced in the past that Iran interfered and has special groups in Iraq, but Iran also had evidence that they were participating in positive ways in security,” Ali al-Dabbagh, a senior Iraqi government spokesman, said in an interview.
“We would like the Iranians to keep their commitment, the commitments they made in meetings with the prime minister and with other groups that have visited them,” he said. “They had made the promise that Iran would be playing a supportive role.”
There has been debate among experts about the extent to which Iran is responsible for instability in Iraq. But President Bush and other American officials, in public castigations of Iran, have said that Iran has been consistently meddlesome in Iraq and that the Iranians have long sought to arm and train Iraqi militias, which the American military has called “special groups.”
In a possible effort to be less obtrusive, it appears that Iran is now bringing small groups of Iraqi Shiite militants to camps in Iran, where they are taught how to do their own training, American officials say.
The militants then return to Iraq to teach comrades how to fire rockets and mortars, fight as snipers or assemble explosively formed penetrators, a particularly lethal type of roadside bomb made of Iranian components, according to American officials. The officials describe this approach as “training the trainers.”
The training, the Americans say, is carried out at several camps near Tehran that are overseen by the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Command, and the instruction is carried out by militants from Hezbollah, which has long been supported by the Quds Force. American officials say the Hezbollah militants perform several important roles for the Iranians.
First, they say, the Iranians believe it is useful to have Arabs train fellow Arabs. Second, Hezbollah has considerable experience in planning operations and using weapons and explosives in Lebanon.
According to American officials, the four Shiite militants who provided the information on Hezbollah’s role were captured between last September and December after they had returned from training in Iran. They were questioned individually and provided similar accounts, the American officials said.
The captured men described themselves in the accounts as part of a class of 16 militants who crossed into Iran from southern Iraq and were taken to a camp near Tehran, where they studied in a classroom and in the field. Some had been in Iran several times as part of a program that American officials said was aimed at turning them into “master trainers” and which could last several years.
Read it all.
Posted by Marisol at May 6, 2008 2:23 AM
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What is it about American and border control? Why can't we shoot these people as they come back in? We should be controlling our borders, if not Iran's--if we are there.
Posted by: lonewolf![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 6, 2008 5:37 AM
"Hezbollah has considerable experience in planning operations and using weapons and explosives in Lebanon."
what? no farming experience, no charitable work for the disabled and infirmed experience, no profit making capitalistic business profit making experience, no manufacturing or mining experience, no community volunteer cleanup or rebuilding experience, no research and developement of alternate fuels experience, no space research experience, no research and developement of possible cures for diseases such as HIV or Ebola, or cancer, or hair loss experience, no research and discovery of new ways to save the enviroment experience, no research and developement of new inventions to ease the lives of humans experience.
well, with considerable experience in planning operations and using weapons and explosives in Lebanon...
I will bet the Jews have something to do with this.
Posted by: pulsar182 at May 6, 2008 9:41 AM
"Hezbollah has considerable experience in planning operations and using weapons and explosives in Lebanon."
Against whom? It's been 25 years since the US left. That's right, it was against Israel! IN that tiny border area. Certainly not against the Syrians who have occupied the ENTIRE COUNTRY.
If the people of Iraq are going to lay down with Hezbollah then they deserve a bedful of fleas.
Posted by: PMK at May 6, 2008 11:32 AM
pulsar182...Allah said 'Warfare is ordained for you'. Allah is funny about what he ordains for who.
He ordained warfare for muslims, but no soap.
Yet on the other side of the world, Indians in California, living along the Napa River, near the town of present day Napa, in the Napa valley, were ordained soap by Allah. The word Napa means, 'land of the soap flower'. A local plant, who's flower would suds up when mixed with water and had a light sweet flower smell. Allah ordained these Indians scented soap, and that's how they used it. He did not ordain them warfare as these tribes were peaceful farmers hunters and fishermen. I think the key may be the scented soap. Weapons, explosives, killing people, seem inconsistent with scented soap.
If we could get every American to send Hizbollah a bar of scented soap, they may get the hint. Some of them may even use it, and lay down their weapons.
It's hard to think about killing people when you are clean and smell good...
at May 6, 2008 11:40 AM
"He ordained warfare for muslims, but no soap."
Posted by: duh_swami '
I have completed a brief search of several sources and have determined...this appears to be true!. Could you expect no less from someone who also may have determined that Women must cover head to toe in 100 degree heat, men must not shave, trim beards or get haircuts. BUrkas and ragged beards increase the temperature in the brain. Excessive heat in the brain causes brain damage. Keep peoples brains too hot for two thousand years and you end up with Muslims. If Allah had ordained soap and trimmed beards, cooler heads would have prevailed not the hotheads you see today.
where do I send the soap?.
Posted by: pulsar182 at May 6, 2008 11:56 AM
“They had made the promise that Iran would be playing a supportive role.”
But did the Iranians specify how and to whom that support would be given? Sounds to me like they are playing a supportive role . . . to the mookie brigade.
Posted by: walterc at May 6, 2008 12:07 PM
l loved McCain's answer when asked about Iran, he said bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb,etc. LOL
Posted by: ZenaWarriorPrincess at May 6, 2008 9:21 PM
There are more flights between Beirut and Tehran than between Beirut and the rest of the world.
Some Lebanese officials (true Lebanese not rats) are accusing Iran of sending Hizbollah in Lebanon rokets, weapons and ammunition illegally.
Too many secret operations and activities, secret convoys and secret cameras by secret Iranian forces and Hizbollah agents are bypassing Lebanese Customs and Lebanese Police.
The rats are very smelly in Lebanon acording to some Lebanese Officials in Beirut.
The Civil war in Lebabon is a must as no one can take the rats any more and they are gettin stinkier everyday.
Posted by: Lebanese at May 7, 2008 9:56 AM
'Lebanese' -
unless I'm mistaken, you're new here? I've noticed you posting over the last few weeks or so, but I'm not sure anyone has formally greeted you.
If so, welcome to the Jihadwatch Virtual Hedge School/ tavern/ war bunker/ coffee house.
Your insights and perspective are welcome; and you may vent all you like, so long as you stay within the very generous boundaries set by Robert, Marisol, Hugh et al. (I assume you have read the 'House Rules' re. Comments, which are set out immediately below every article that is posted).
If you're checking in from Lebanon itself, may the true God (who is not the Arab war-demon 'allah') protect you and yours and give you the wisdom and courage to do whatever you have to do, to survive and prevail.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at May 8, 2008 12:45 AM
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