'Officials': Iran increasing weapons shipments to Iraq, Afghanistan, including 240mm rocket with 30-mile range used against 'green zone'

Above: Tehran, capital of Iran. Left: The Fajr-3 artillery rocket can was designed to be used in a multiple rocket launcher configuration.

Iran has increased arms shipments to both Iraq's Shiite extremists and Afghanistan's Taliban in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to pressure American and other Western troops operating in its two strategic neighbors, according to senior U.S. and European officials.

In Iraq, Iranian 240mm rockets, which have a range of up to 30 miles and could significantly change the battlefield, have been used recently by Shiite extremists against U.S. and British targets in Basra and Baghdad, the officials said. Three of the rockets have targeted U.S. facilities in Baghdad's Green Zone, and one came very close to hitting the U.S. Embassy in the Iraqi capital, according to the U.S. officials.

The 240mm rocket is the biggest and longest-range weapon in the hands of Shiite extremist groups, U.S. officials said. Remnants of the rockets bear the markings of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and are dated 2007, those sources said. The Tehran government has supplied the same weapon, known as the Fajr-3, to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

Related Link:
NATO: EFP found in Afghanistan 'considerably similiar' to 'those made in Iraq'

Related Link:
Blair: Iran arming Taliban against West

Related Link:
U.S., Iran hold 'talks', future meetings in dispute

Related Link:
Petraeus: Iran has spent 'hundreds of millions of dollars' on Iraq militias, training 'special ops' cells of Sadr's Mahdi Army

Related Link:
UK 'Senior Army Source': Iran supplying Taliban with weapons including surface-to-air missiles

Related Link:
'Senior U.S. Official': Iran coordinating Sunni-Shiite summer offensive against troops in Iraq

Related Link:
General Caldwell: Iran supplying some Sunni insurgents

Related Link:
General Lynch: Sunni insurgents using Iranian EFPs

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

Related Link:
Military: Iranian weapons cache found, destroyed in Mahmudiyah

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

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