[U.S. News] Anna Mulrine - The U.S. military has launched a special operations task force to break up Iranian influence in Iraq. Task Force 16 was created late last year to target Iranians trafficking arms and training Shiite militia forces. The operation is modeled on Task Force 15, a clandestine cadre of Navy SEALs, Army Delta Force soldiers, and CIA operatives that killed al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi, last June. The new force is part of an escalation of military countermeasures against Iran, authorized by President Bush, to strike back at what military officials describe as a widespread web of Iranian influence in Iraq that includes providing weapons, training, and money to Shiite militias. Iran's efforts to foment chaos in Iraq are primarily carried out by the Iranian intelligence service and the Revolutionary Guards' al-Quds (Jerusalem) Brigade, the foreign operations arm of the Iranian military, which also supports Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, told the Senate last week, "we know that Iranian-supplied and -made weapons are on the streets of Baghdad killing our troops." U.S. officials, including the president, have stopped just short of directly blaming Iranian government leaders for American deaths in Iraq - a claim that, if made, could lead to pressure for U.S. military action against Iran itself. In Baghdad neighborhoods like Karrada, south of Sadr City, U.S. soldiers have arrested suspects who speak only Iran's Farsi language. A U.S. soldier south of Sadr City adds that he is increasingly told by locals that Iranians are coming to live in certain areas.
2007-01-19 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive