US points finger at Iran for Iraq attack

Iran is using the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah as a “proxy” to arm Shiite militants in Iraq and Tehran’s elite Quds force helped militants carry out a January attack

Iran is using the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah as a “proxy” to arm Shiite militants in Iraq and Tehran’s elite Quds force helped militants carry out a January attack in Karbala in which five Americans died, a US general said on Monday. The Quds force is the external arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

US military spokesperson Brig Gen Kevin J Bergner said a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative, Ali Mussa Dakdouk, was captured on March 20 in southern Iraq. Bergner said Dakdouk has worked for the Hezbollah for 24 years and was “working in Iraq as a surrogate for the Quds force”.

The general also said Dakdouk was a liaison between the Iranians and a breakaway Shiite group led by Qais al-Kazaali, a former spokesperson for cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Bergner said al-Kazaali’s group carried out the January attack against a provincial government building in Karbala and that the Iranians assisted in preparations.

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Al-Khazaali and his brother Ali al-Khazaali, both captured in March, have told US interrogators that they “could not have conducted it (the Karbala attack) without support from the Quds force,” Bergner said.

The general said Iraqi extremists were taken to Iran in groups of 20 to 60 for training in three camps “not too far from Tehran.” When they returned to Iraq, they formed units called “special groups” to carry out attacks.