Petraeus: Iran-trained Mahdi cell kidnapped Britons; Iran involvement in Iraq 'much, much more significant than we thought before'

Left: The building from which the Britons were kidnapped. The kidnap was apparently well-planned. According to eyewitness accounts and an official Finance Ministry report, four men in civilian clothes scouted the Finance Ministry's information office on Palestine Street 15 minutes before the abduction. Then 40 gunmen wearing Iraqi army and National Police uniforms sealed off the street at both ends. The kidnappers then walked past more than a dozen Finance Ministry guards, who offered no resistance, and stormed the building. The hostages were spirited away in a convoy of more than a dozen four-wheel-drive vehicles, in the direction of Sadr City.

Five Britons who were kidnapped in Baghdad last month are being held by a secret cell of the Mahdi Army militia that was armed, trained and funded by Iran, the top U.S. commander in Iraq was quoted Thursday as saying.

"A very intensive effort" is under way to find the hostages, Gen. David Petraeus was quoted as saying in the London newspaper The Times.

The captives — four security guards and a consultant — were abducted from the Iraqi Finance Ministry on May 29 by some 40 heavily armed men who took them in the direction of Baghdad's sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City. Iraqi officials have said they believe the Britons were taken hostage by the Mahdi Army militia, which is largely loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

But Petraeus was quoted as telling The Times, "It is a secret cell of Jaish al-Mahdi (the Mahdi Army). They are trained in Iraq, equipped with Iranian (weapons) and advised by Iran. The Iranian involvement here we have found to be much, much more significant than we thought before."

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune

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