U.S. Targets Iranian-Made Weapons
Pastor Dale Morgan
May 4, 11:03 PM EDT
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U.S. Targets Iranian-Made Weapons*
By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) -- U.S.-led forces on Friday arrested suspected Shiite
militants accused of smuggling powerful bomb components from Iran, and
clashes between Shiite factions broke out in two major cities. The U.S.
announced the deaths of five American soldiers - three of them in bombings.
The arrests occurred during a raid early Friday in Baghdad's teeming
Shiite district of Sadr City, stronghold of the notorious Mahdi Army
militia of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
A U.S. military statement did not identify them as Mahdi Army members
but said they were part of a "secret cell" that smuggles powerful bombs
known as "explosively formed penetrators," or EFPs, from Iran and sends
Shiite fighters from Iraq for training in Iran.
U.S. and some Iraqi officials suspect the Iranians may be stoking a
growing power struggle among Shiite factions and political parties -
despite the Tehran government's insistence that it is working to help
bring stability to its neighbor Iraq.
Clashes broke out Friday in Baghdad and in the Shiite shrine city of
Najaf when police said Mahdi Army gunmen attacked offices of the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Republic in Iraq, or SCIRI, a key member of the
U.S.-backed Iraqi government but with strong ties to Tehran.
Four people were injured in Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, prompting
local authorities to impose a curfew. The clash in Baghdad occurred when
Mahdi gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at a
SCIRI office in the Habibiya district, injuring two guards, police said.
In Diwaniyah, a Shiite city 80 miles south of Baghdad, suspected Shiite
gunmen attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol late Friday, killing one Iraqi
soldier and wounding four civilians, police said.
It was unclear what provoked the attacks, but they appeared to be part
of an escalating power struggle brewing throughout the dominant Shiite
community, which intensified after Britain announced plans to draw down
its troops in the mostly Shiite south.
Shiite parties are trying to oust the Shiite governor of oil-rich Basra
province, and violence has broken out recently in Kut and other Shiite
cities.
Some Mahdi Army members in Sadr City have said a pro-Iranian faction has
been sending fighters to Iran for training. The members spoke on
condition of anonymity because of fears for their own safety.
In another sign of unrest, hundreds of angry Shiites poured onto the
streets of Najaf and Basra to protest what they considered insults by
Al-Jazeera television against Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The protesters were angered by an Al-Jazeera talk show this week in
which the host, Egyptian Ahmed Mansour, questioned al-Sistani's
leadership credentials and whether he authored his own religious edicts.
Unrest in Shiite areas adds a new and dangerous dimension to the
challenge facing U.S. forces as they try to restore order in the capital
during the 11-week Baghdad security operation.
U.S. officials maintain that sectarian killings in the capital have
declined since the Baghdad crackdown was launched Feb. 14, in large part
because Shiite militias assumed a low profile to avoid a confrontation
with the Americans.
But attacks using EFPs, the signature weapon of Shiite militias, are on
the rise.
Last month, the number of EFP attacks against American forces hit a
monthly high of 69, U.S. officials said. At the same time, April was the
deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq since December with 104 deaths,
although it was unclear how many were a result of EFPs.
The increase in attacks using EFPs, which the U.S. says come from Iran,
suggest that the Shiite extremists may be shifting tactics, reducing
their slaughter of Sunni civilians but focusing more on U.S. and Iraqi
forces.
This week, extremists launched at least three rocket or mortar attacks
against the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, killing four Asian contractors.
Those attacks appeared to have come from areas where Shiite militias
operate.
It was unclear whether Iranian weapons were responsible for the latest
U.S. deaths.
The military said one American soldier was killed Friday by a bomb south
of Baghdad. Four others were killed Thursday - two by bombings in Sunni
and Shiite areas of the capital and two in unspecified "combat
operations" in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, the military said.
A senior U.S. commander was wounded Thursday by small arms fire while
inspecting a controversial security barrier being built by the military
to separate a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in northern
Baghdad, the U.S. said Friday. The officer's name was not released.
One Iraqi interpreter was also killed in one of the Thursday attacks in
Baghdad, the military said.
At least 38 other Iraqis were killed or found dead Friday, police said.
They included five policemen killed in a roadside bombing in western
Baghdad and five civilians who died when a car bomb exploded near a
Shiite mosque in Hillah.
The bodies of 16 men - bullet-riddled and handcuffed - were found in
various parts of Baghdad, apparent victims of sectarian death squads,
according to police.
Violence has also intensified as the U.S. steps up its campaign against
the Sunni-dominated al-Qaida network, which President Bush has
identified as the No. 1 target of the U.S. military.
American and Iraqi troops repulsed a coordinated attack near Fallujah in
a three-hour battle Thursday in which 11 people were killed, six of them
insurgents, the U.S. Marines said Friday. There were no U.S. troops or
Iraqi police killed, the Marines said, but five civilians died, five
Iraqi police were wounded and one policeman was missing.
On Thursday, the U.S. announced it had killed al-Qaida propagandist
Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri in a battle near Taji north of Baghdad.
On Friday, U.S. officials said al-Jubouri's spiritual adviser, Sabah
Hilal al-Shihawi, and Egyptian fighter Abu Ammar al-Masri were also
killed in the same battle.
But the two top al-Qaida figures - Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar
al-Baghdadi - remain at large. Iraqi officials had announced both had
been killed, apparently confusing them with al-Jubouri.
Al-Qaida's front organization, the Islamic State of Iraq, denied either
was dead in separate statements posted on Islamic extremist Web sites.