Lynch said death squads linked to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr are training in Iran and then coming back to Iraq to attack U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.
WASHINGTON, July 6 (UPI) – A top U.S. general in Iraq said in the last three months nine of his soldiers have been killed by Iranian-made explosives.
Iran is accused by the U.S. military of supplying sophisticated roadside bombs that make explosively formed projectiles, large slugs of metal specifically designed to penetrate U.S. armored vehicles.
"Since we’ve been here, the 4th of April, we’ve had 29 EFP attacks; 18 of those were effective attacks, and it killed nine of our soldiers," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, which is conducting surge operations south of Baghdad.
"EFP technology has traced directly back to Iran, so those things that are coming from Iran, they’re causing a great concern," Lynch told Pentagon reporters.
In a country already awash with old rockets and mortars, Lynch’s troops have found four weapons caches that included Iranian munitions.
"We found Iranian rockets, we found Iranian mortars clearly marked with Iranian markings, and that is just unacceptable. So what’s happening is, these bad things are coming from Iran into Iraq, they’re finding themselves in the hands of the extremists in our battlespace, and they’re being used against coalition forces, against Iraqi security forces and against innocent Iraqis, and that just has to stop," he said.
No Iranian agents have been captured by his troops inside Iraq that would directly link Tehran to the continued violence.
"What I have is just indicators of Iranian influence, and it’s causing us great concern," he said.
Lynch said death squads linked to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr are training in Iran and then coming back to Iraq to attack U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.
Earlier this week a U.S. general told reporters Iran has used Hezbollah fighters to train Iraqi Shiite fighters.