Petraeus: Iran's Qods Force behind network of Iraq terror cells; Captured documents detail plan for Karbala ambush which killed 5 soldiers

Above: The five soldiers who died. 1 soldier was killed in the January attack. 4 others were abducted and executed miles away.

WASHINGTON -- Iran's Qods Force funded, armed, and trained a network of secret Iraqi cells that kidnapped and killed five US soldiers in January in Karbala, the top US commander in Iraq said Thursday...

"There is no question that the Al Qazhali network was connected to the Iranian Qods Force - received money, training, arms, ammunition, and at some points in time even advice and assistance," Petraeus said.

Petraeus said the evidence of Qods Force involvement emerged in interrogations of the network's captured leader and other cell members rolled up in subsequent raids over the past month.

"We discovered a 22-page memorandum on a computer that detailed the planning, preparation, approval process, and conduct of the operation that resulted in five of our soldiers being killed in Karbala," he said.

"There are numerous documents which detail a number of different attacks on coalition forces, and our sense is that these records were kept so that they could be handed in to whoever was financing them," he said.

Read the rest at the Mid-East Times

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