[New York Times] Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Marc Santora - - President Bush said Wednesday that he was certain that factions within the Iranian government had supplied Shiite militants in Iraq with deadly roadside bombs that had killed American troops. But he said he did not know whether Iran's highest officials had directed the attacks. Bush publicly endorsed assertions that an elite branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps known as the Quds Force has provided Shiite militias in Iraq with the sophisticated weapons that have been responsible for killing at least 170 American soldiers and wounding more than 600. "I can say with certainty that the Quds Force, a part of the Iranian government, has provided these sophisticated IEDs that have harmed our troops." The chief American military spokesman in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, said people, including Iranians, detained in Iraq in the past 60 days, "have told us that the Quds Force provides support to extremist groups here in Iraq in the forms of both money and weaponry."
2007-02-15 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive