Baghdad – The U.S. military accused Iran on Sunday of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.
The allegations came as Iraqi leaders condemned the latest U.S. detention of an Iranian in northern Iraq, saying the man was on official business.
Rear Adm. Mark Fox, a military spokesman, said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry, including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.
Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240 mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), Fox said.
An American soldier was killed Saturday and another wounded when an EFP hit their patrol in eastern Baghdad, the military said.
Iran has denied U.S. allegations that it is smuggling weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq, a view Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired Sunday.
“We don’t need to do that. We are very much opposed to war and insecurity,” said Ahmadinejad, who arrived Sunday in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. “The insecurity in Iraq is detrimental to our interests.”
Tensions between Iran and the United States have worried Iraqi officials – many of whom are members of political parties with close ties to Tehran.
On Thursday, U.S. troops arrested an Iranian in the Kur dish city of Sulaimaniyah. U.S. officials said he was a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that smuggles weapons into Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the arrest, saying he understood the man identified as Mahmudi Farhadi had been invited to Iraq.
“The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa, it is responsible for the visa,” he told The Associated Press in an interview in New York. “We consider the arrest … of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a (valid) passport to be unacceptable.”
The U.S. military said the suspect was being questioned about “his knowledge of, and involvement in,” the transportation of EFPs and other roadside bombs into Iraq.
