Thursday, April 12, 2007

Iran Giving Arms To Iraq's Sunnis, U.S. Military Says


A 107mm rocket, above, and mortar rounds, left, which the military says are of Iranian manufacture. The military said the weapons were found in a Mercedes parked outside a Sunni home last week. These may or may not be connected to the raid of the home a leading Sunni lawmaker.

BAGHDAD, April 11 -- The chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq asserted Wednesday that Iranian-made arms, manufactured as recently as last year, have reached Sunni insurgents here, which if true would mark a new development in the four-year-old conflict.

Citing testimony from detainees in U.S. custody, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said Iranian intelligence operatives were backing the Sunni militants inside Iraq while at the same time training Shiite extremists in Iran.

"We have, in fact, found some cases recently where Iranian intelligence services have provided to some Sunni insurgent groups some support," Caldwell told reporters, adding that he was aware of only Shiite extremists being trained inside Iran. Caldwell cited a collection of munitions on a nearby table that he said were made in Iran and found two days ago in a majority-Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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