BAGHDAD (AFP) – US forces on Friday seized 16 more Iraqis suspected of smuggling armour-piercing bombs from Iran, the military said, in the latest in a series of raids in the Baghdad Shiite suburb Sadr City.
The arrests came one day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exchanged brief remarks with her Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki at talks on Iraq in Egypt, the first such encounter since 1980.
Friday’s US military news release had near identical phrasing to two previous statements on Sadr City raids on Thursday and on April 27, and fits an emerging US policy of attempting to tie violence in Iraq to Iranian sponsors.
"The individuals targeted during the raid are suspected members of a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq," it said.
The statement, released by coalition command in Baghdad, also accused the captives of "bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training."
"Intelligence reports also indicate the secret cell has ties to a kidnapping network that conducts attacks within Iraq as well as interactions with rogue elements throughout Iraq and into Iran," it said.
US commanders have long accused Iranian agents of fomenting unrest in Iraq, where the government and its American allies face the dual threat of a violent insurgency and a vicious sectarian war between Sunni and Shiite factions.
Tehran denies having any links to the violence.
Recently, however, the daily press statements released by US command in Baghdad have become much more explicit in linking arrests and military operations to action against the alleged Iranian threat.
Another statement, also released Friday, recounting a routine seizure of an insurgent weapons cache by US troops south of Baghdad noted that the roadside bombs, mortar shells and rockets were of Iranian manufacture.
The US military has arrested seven alleged officers in Iran’s covert Qods Force and are holding them in Iraq.
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