Baghdad, Iraq – A senior U.S. general said Sunday that about 50 members of an elite Iranian military unit are training Shiite militias south of Baghdad, the first time the U.S. military has alleged that Iranians are aiding insurgents from inside Iraq.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who commands U.S. operations south of Baghdad, said the men were sent by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps – a military branch that the U.S. government has labeled a “specially designated global terrorist” – to train Shiite insurgents in firing mortars and rockets.
“They are facilitating training of Shiite extremists,” Lynch told reporters in Baghdad. “We know they’re here, and we target them as well.”
Iran’s government has consistently denied any connection between the Revolutionary Guard Corps and insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq, and some military-intelligence analysts have concluded there is no concrete evidence of such a link. But U.S. military leaders in Iraq have repeatedly maintained that Iran is providing money, weapons and training to so-called special-cell militia groups, generally citing information gathered from interrogations.
Meanwhile, 12 people were killed by a barrage of mortar rounds in east Baghdad, police said. Several homes were destroyed, and at least 32 people were injured in the Shiite neighborhood of Obeidi.
Also, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Baghdad on Sunday on invitation from President Jalal Talabani. He said he came not with a particular diplomatic agenda but to listen to people working to solve the country’s problems.
