Sunday, May 06, 2007

General Lynch: Sunni insurgents using Iranian EFPs

Above: Aftermath of an EFP (explosively formed projectile) attack. First reported in use last year, the armor-piercing EFPs are significantly more lethal than conventional roadside bombs. Having already claimed Shiite Iran was supporting Shiite militias, the U.S. has increasingly asserted Iranian support of Sunni insurgents as well.

BAGHDAD: Powerful roadside bombs believed to be of Iranian origin and considered the signature weapon of Shiite militias are turning up in the hands of Sunni insurgents south of Baghdad, a U.S. general said Sunday.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army's Task Force Marne, said the presence of "explosively formed penetrators," or EFPs, in Sunni weapons caches suggests some degree of Iranian influence among Sunni as well as Shiite extremists.

"We're seeing Iranian EFPs in the hands of Sunni extremists," Lynch told a group of Western reporters.

But Lynch, whose command covers the southern rim of Baghdad and mostly Shiite areas to the south, said it was unclear whether the Iranians were supplying the weapons directly or whether the Sunnis were buying them on the black market.

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

Related Link:
Odierno: EFP attacks hit record high in April

Related Link:
U.S.: Iran world's biggest sponsor of terrorism

Related Link:
Military: Raid seizes 'nearly new' Iranian-marked rockets, mortars

Related Link:
GAO: Most IEDs built from looted Iraqi ammo

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

Related Link:
Pace: U.S. intercepted Iranian weapons headed to Taliban in Afghanistan

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

Related Link:
General Barbero: Iran supporting Sunni insurgents

Related Link:
Basra police chief says roadside bomb that killed 4 British soldiers was Iranian

Related Link:
State Department Official: Evidence of Iran support for insurgents 'growing, frightening'

Related Link:
U.S.: Use Of Deadly Roadside Bomb Plunges

Related Link:
Exile says Tehran training Iraqi militants in Iran, names senior Iraqi officials as complicit

Related Link:
Petraeus: Iran training, arming insurgents; Suicide bombers streaming from Syria

Related Link:
GAO: Unguarded munitions supplying insurgency

Related Link:
Perspective: Sunni insurgents remain biggest threat to U.S. troops in Iraq

Related Link:
Brigadier General Anderson: Most IEDs are from Saddam’s regime

Related Link:
'Intelligence Officials': Iran runs own network of insurgents in attacks against U.S. troops

Related Link:
Iraqi National Security Adviser: Iranians have stopped training and providing weapons to insurgents

Related Link:
Inelligence Chief McConnell: Iran training Iraqi insurgents in I.E.D. use at sites in Lebanon, Iran

Related Link:
U.S. Says Raid in Iraq Supports Claim on Iran

Related Link:
Intelligence Sources: Officials in Iran weapons briefing overstated evidence

Related Link:
Perspective: Doubts raised on linking of Iran to US deaths in Iraq

Related Link:
Military: 'Rogue elements' of Shi'ite militias behind use of Iranian EFPs

Related Link:
Bush: Iran supplying roadside bombs

Related Link:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Pace: No proof of Iranian government involvement in supplying weapons to insurgents

Related Link:
Sources: 'Highest levels' of Iran government funneling sophisticated explosives to extremist groups