'Senior US Officer': Iranian link to kidnap of Britons

Left: Qais Khazali was known as a spokesman for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's political movement in 2004 in Baghdad's Sadr City, but it is not clear whether he is still involved with al-Sadr's movement. Two Mehdi Army commanders told The Associated Press that Khazali had split with al-Sadr and leads 3,000 fighters of his own with financing from Iran.

US commanders suspect that an Iraqi militant cell with links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards was behind last week's abduction of five British contractors, a senior military official said on Tuesday.

The five, a management consultant and his four bodyguards, were kidnapped by a large team of gunmen dressed in Iraqi police uniforms on May 29 during a visit to an Iraqi finance ministry office in east Baghdad.

A senior US officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that investigations pointed to the operation having been carried out by members of the "Khazali network", an Iraqi extremist cell with links to Iranian forces.

The leaders of the group - Qais Khazali and his brother Laith - were arrested in March by US forces after they were implicated in an attack in January in which five American soldiers were captured and killed.

The military believes that elements of the group are still at large and that last week's well-organised daylight attack bears its hallmarks.

Read the rest at IOL

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