Iraqi security forces captured three members of Qods Force, Iran’s special operations branch, during a raid in Diyala province.
“The three were arrested inside al-Khalis district, north of Baaquba city,” an Iraqi official told Voices of Iraq.
Iraqi and US forces have killed one Qods Force operative and captured 14 since mid-October 2008 during raids throughout southern and central Iraq.
A Dec. 19, 2008 raid in the town of Qastin in Diyala province netted a senior Qods force officer and his associate. The officer was described as a “commander of Iranian special operations in Iraq who is also believed to be involved in facilitating training of Iraqi militants at Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force training camps.”
Reports of raids and detentions against the Iranian-backed Shia terror groups have declined since the start of the New Year after a flurry of activity in 2007 and 2008.
Iranian activity in Iraq
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Flash Presentation on the Ramazan Corps and the Iranian Ratlines into Iraq. Click the map to view. A Flash Player is required to view, click to download. |
Both the Iraqi government and the US military have said Iran has backed various Shia terror groups, including elements of the Mahdi Army. While the Iranian government has denied the charges, Iraqi and US forces have detained dozens of Iranian Qods Force officers and operatives, captured numerous Shia terrorist leaders under Iranian command, and have found ample documentation as well as Iranian-made weapons.
US and Iraqi forces have captured several high-level Qods Force officers inside Iraq since late 2006. Among those captured are Mahmud Farhadi, one of the three Iranian regional commanders in the Ramazan Corps; Ali Mussa Daqduq, a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative; Qais Qazali, the leader of the Qazali Network which is better known as the Asaib al Haq or the League of the Righteous; and Azhar al Dulaimi, one of Qazali’s senior tactical commanders. The US has imposed sanctions on Major General Ahmad Foruzandeh, the former Qods Force commander, and Abdul Reza Shahlai, a deputy commander in Iran’s Qods Force, for backing Shia terror groups inside Iraq.
Qods Force, the special operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has supported various Shia militias and terror groups inside Iraq, including the Mahdi Army. Qods Force helped to build the Mahdi Army along the same lines as Lebanese Hezbollah. Iran denies the charges, but captive Shia terrorists admit to being recruited by Iranian agents and then transported into Iran for training.
Iran established the Ramazan Corps immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime to direct operations inside Iraq. The US military says Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah have helped establish, fund, train, and arm, and have provided operational support for Shia terror groups such as the Hezbollah Brigades and the League of the Righteous. The US military refers to these groups as well as the Iranian-backed elements of the Mahdi Army as the “Special Groups.” These groups train in camps inside Iran.
US military officers believe Iran is ramping up its operations inside Iraq after its surrogates suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Iraqi military during the spring and summer of 2008. Iraqi troops went on the offensive against the Mahdi Army and other Iranian-backed terror groups in Baghdad, Basrah, and central and southern Iraq. More than 2,000 Mahdi Army members were killed and thousands more were wounded. The operation forced Muqtada al Sadr to agree to a cease-fire, disband the Mahdi Army, and pull the Sadrist political party out of the provincial elections. Sadr’s moves caused shock waves in the Mahdi Army, as some of the militia’s leaders wished to continue the fight against US forces in Baghdad and in southern and central Iraq.
The League of the Righteous is a splinter group that broke away from Muqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Army after Sadr announced he would disband the Mahdi Army and formed a small, secretive military arm to fight Coalition forces in June. The new group, called the Brigade of the Promised Day, has not been linked to any attacks since its formation last summer.
Sadr loyalist Qais Qazali was commander the League of the Righteous up until his capture in 2007. It is now said to be under the command of Akram al Kabi, a former Sadr loyalist.
The League of the Righteous receives funding, training, weapons, and direction from the Qods Force. The League of the Righteous conducts attacks with the deadly armor-piercing explosively formed projectiles known as EFPs, as well as with the more conventional roadside bombs.
The size of the League of the Righteous is unknown, but hundreds of members of the group were killed, captured, or fled to Iran during the Iraqi government offensive against the Mahdi Army from March to July of 2008, according to the US military.
Sadr is looking to pull the rank and file of the League back into the fold of the Sadr political movement. In a recent message issued by Sadr where he rejected the US-Iraqi security agreement, he said he “extends his hand to the mujahideen in the so-called Asaib but not their leaderships who have been distracted by politics and mortal life from the [two late] Sadrs and the interests of Iraq and Iraqis.”
The Hezbollah Brigades, or Kata’ib Hezbollah, has been active in and around Baghdad for more than a year. The terror group has increased its profile by conducting attacks against US and Iraqi forces using the deadly explosively formed penetrator land mines and improvised rocket-assisted mortars, which have been described as flying improvised explosive devices. The Hezbollah Brigades has posted videos of these attacks on the Internet.
The terror group is an offshoot of Iranian-trained Special Groups, the US military said last summer. Hezbollah Brigades receives funding, training, logistics, guidance, and material support from the Qods Force.
The US and Iraqi military believe the Special Groups are preparing to re-initiate fighting as their leaders and operatives are beginning to filter back into Iraq from Iran. On Feb. 4, Lieutenant General Lloyd Austin, the deputy commander of Multinational Forces Iraq, said that Iran continues to arm, fund, and train the Special Groups, and that munitions traced back to Iran continue to be uncovered in Iraq. Recent intelligence and the finds of new Iranian caches “lead us to believe that Iranian support activity is still ongoing,” Austin warned.
7 Comments
I sure hope we don’t pull out too soon and too completely and let this nation get under Iran’s heal. Now that oil prices are down and the pace of raising Iraq’s security abilities is being slowed, one wonders if other Gulf States might not provide some funding to Iraq’s military in exchange for an anti-Iranian alliance agreement?
EFPs and IRAMs in a report of Iranian support for Shia militias. OUTSTANDING ARTICLE. Its surprising that anyone outside those of us doing something about this, would even mention it in an article. I know why the liberal MSM does not report these facts and it disturbs me. I feel every American should know what we are up against. Qods Force personnel even pay militia members for Americans killed in an attack. The amount depends on the level of the American soldier. Officer, enlisted. SF, Infantry, etc…
Kudos for the article, Mr Roggio. How did you come about this info? Most of this is sensitive reporting!
Iraq is still up for grabs. I too hope we do not pull out too soon, Iraqi forces do not have the capabilities of US forces, but they do know the lay of the land, and constant diligence is a must here. It says somewhere, “do unto others as they have done to you”…maybe the Iranians need a dose of thier own medicine.
http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2009/03/09/us_eyes_iran_for_resupply_of_afghan_forces/2901/
These are the same people the Obama administration wants to “negotiate” with for a logistics route into Afghanistan…
DREAM
WORLD,
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KW64 I doubt we’ll see them directly fund Iraq’s military, remember they too are feeling the pinch of sub 60$ oil.
This is well written. I find it intriguing that Qud forces have been captured in Iraq myself. Albeit
sensitive in itself could it be that certain measures of security have been taken because if, and only if, access were granted for supplies, there would be no loose ends, so to speak.
I believe that Iran really wants peace and a program to care for the masses, energy wise. The constant focus on Israel stems from Israels constant pounding of Palestine whether pushed into it or not. I have seen a lot of both. The Qud are not known for their patience with interference from the outside world. They miss very little in the entire area and the fact that some were captured entails even another story. Perhaps there is more to be seen, but even still it is odd for the occasion,
all things considered.
Out of curiosity do you believe that the Qud feels the crunch of the oil factor too?
Quds Force operations in Iraq…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quds_Force#Iraq
NO
SECRETS,
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