More Evidence Iran is Killing Our Soldiers (Big Update: #24 Most Wanted in US Custody)
John on April 27, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Update 4/28 Noon: Thursday General Petraeus mentioned, in response to a reporter’s question, the detention of someone named Sheibani (see excerpt below). A little more digging reveals that “Sheibani” is likely Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani, the Iranian backed insurgent who first introduced EFPs into Iraq back in 2005. Time magazine once described Sheibani as the US military’s “nemesis”:
The U.S. Military’s new nemesis in Iraq is named Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani, and he is not a Baathist or a member of al-Qaeda. He is working for Iran. According to a U.S. military-intelligence document obtained by TIME, al-Sheibani heads a network of insurgents created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps with the express purpose of committing violence against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. Over the past eight months, his group has introduced a new breed of roadside bomb more lethal than any seen before; based on a design from the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hizballah, the weapon employs “shaped” explosive charges that can punch through a battle tank’s armor like a fist through the wall. According to the document, the U.S. believes al-Sheibani’s team consists of 280 members, divided into 17 bombmaking teams and death squads. The U.S. believes they train in Lebanon, in Baghdad’s predominantly Shi’ite Sadr City district and “in another country” and have detonated at least 37 bombs against U.S. forces this year in Baghdad alone.
This offhand comment by Gen. Petraeus is the first indication that our “nemesis” Sheibani has been captured. This ought to be a big story given that Iranian made EFPs are responsible for killing as many as 170 US soldiers and wounding another 600.
Why hasn’t the MSM noticed?
Added: See-Dubya links from HotAir (thanks) and adds a bit I’d missed. Sheibani was on the Iraqi government’s most wanted list. He was #24 and had a $200K price on his head. A very big fish indeed. No wonder Gen. Petraeus says the extent of Iran’ s influence in Iraq has become a lot clearer of late.
[End update]
Yesterday General Petraeus gave a briefing in Washington in which he indicated the seriousness of the Iran connection to insurgents in Iraq:
Gen. Petraeus: The Iranian involvement has really become much clearer to us and brought into much more focus during the interrogation of the members — the heads of the Qazali network and some of the key members of that network that have been in detention now for a month or more.
This is the head of the secret cell network, the extremist secret cells. They were provided substantial funding, training on Iranian soil, advanced explosive munitions and technologies as well as run of the mill arms and ammunition, in some cases advice and in some cases even a degree of direction.
When we captured these individuals — the initial capture, and then there have been a number of others since then — we discovered, for example, a 22-page memorandum on a computer that detailed the planning, preparation, approval process and conduct of the operation that resulted in five of our soldiers being killed in Karbala.
It also detailed — there are numerous documents which detailed a number of different attacks on coalition forces, and our sense is that these records were kept so that they could be handed in to whoever it is that is financing them. And there’s no question, again, that Iranian financing is taking place through the Quds force of the Iranian Republican Guards Corps.
As you know, there are seven Quds Force members in detention as well. This involvement, again, we learned more about with the detention of an individual named Sheibani, who is one of the heads of the Sheibani network, which brings explosively formed projectiles into Iraq from Iran. His brother is the Iranian connection. He is — was in Iraq. And that has been the conduit that then distributes these among the extremist elements again of these secret cells and so forth.
Only a day later, his words were given an exclamation point when a raid connected Iran to the supply of EFPs entering Iraq:
US forces on Friday detained four members of a gang suspected of smuggling armour-piercing bombs from Iran to Iraq and sending back militants for “terrorist training”, the military said. A statement from US command in Iraq said the suspects were picked up in an early morning raid on the east Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, a known stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia.
“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.
I’ll be adding these events, and a few more, to the timeline.
Category: Islamic Jihad |
Great catch of news. For the life of me, I do not understand why we are not covertly knocking off the IRG and blowing up the Iranian parliamentary offices…with them in it! I guess I’ll have to wait until they get nuclear weapons…then use them…then we recruit enough people…then we train them…all the time hoping they don’t strike us first…and the UN does nothing. Such is (not) life.
April 29, 2007 @ 8:10 pmIran caught in Iraq, we do nothing…
[Nevermind the email. I found it. *blush*]
April 29, 2007 @ 9:27 pmVerum Serum has some hard hitting news about ties between some terrorists and Iran. Iran, as you all know, has been at war with us, and they are providing financial, training and material support. What happ…..
[...] More redundant evidence that Iran is already at war with us in Iraq. What is the Bush Administration waiting for? Does ANYBODY give a damn about this brutal, inescapable reality? Or is Dubya more afraid of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid than he is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? [...]
April 29, 2007 @ 11:54 pmThey’re just resisting the occupation. You wingnuts should read some history. This has all happened before.
April 30, 2007 @ 6:32 amRick,
You should read some news. They’re not resisting the occupation, they’re working on creating a new Persian empire. It’s pretty disgusting to me that you’d want to take their side in this.
April 30, 2007 @ 9:21 amRick,
How clueless can you be? “Resisting the occupation?!?!” What occupation? Are we “occupying” Iran? Perhaps you mean our presence in Iraq. If that is what you are talking about, how does Iran get to “resist the occupation” of a country that isn’t their own?
It’s not like they’ve been invited by the citizens of Iraq. In fact, the general population of Iraq is being butchered by Iran’s involvement/interference in what is going on right now. Iraqi’s who want to be involved in making their country a better/safer place are being butchered by Iranian terrorists and their explosive devices, all because Iran doesn’t like that there is a huge percentage of the population that wants a safe, democratically-oriented country.
Perhaps it would do you some good if you actually tried to deal with the realities of the situation in the Middle East, as opposed to dealing with the fog-obscured delusions of the liberal left who want to pretend that over in Iraq and Afghanastan, things were better before we got there including human rights, education, women’s rights, medicine and general infrastructure.
April 30, 2007 @ 10:15 amScott, tu comepinga!
The Americans have no business in that part of the world. What would your response be if Iran invaded Mexico pendejo?
The type of human trash that populate our military compound the problem. Uneducated, NASCAR fan, flag waving fools who have no understanding of the language & culture of the people they were sent to terrorize.
Sounds like a recipe for success to me comemierda!
April 30, 2007 @ 6:52 pmRicardo,
The Spanglish isn’t helping your credibility. Please stick with one language or the other if you want to be taken seriously (though that ship may have already passed).
April 30, 2007 @ 9:38 pmI guess this explains why you side with the Iranians. You despise Americans.
There are plenty of flag waving “fools” in Chicago. Maybe even a few NASCAR fans.
April 30, 2007 @ 11:37 pmRick,
Glad to see your years of high school Spanish has paid off, though I’m not sure your Spanish teacher would approve of your use of profanity. I personally could do without being likened to someone who is a “dick sucker,” but maybe that is just me being sensitive! Of course, I could also do without being called an “asshole” and “shit eater.”
Considering your attempt to insult me in Spanish, I particularly enjoyed the irony of your discussion of the “type of human trash that populate our military” who are “Uneducated, NASCAR fans” and who “have no understanding of the language & culture of the people.”
How is it that people on the left seem far more likely to resort to name calling, insults, profanity and rabid tirades when they hear or read something they don’t agree with? Why would you feel the need to call me “dick sucker,” “asshole” and “shit eater?” Because I have said something that you disagree with? Nice! I wonder if you provide these kind of bilingual intellectual insights for everyone you disagree with. Do you think it sounds more intelligent to offer your insults in two languages?
Is it not obvious to you that your little rant here demonstrates that if anyone is “human trash,” “uneducated” and without an understanding of culture,…it is you? Or are you too stupido to see that? Maybe you were too busy with your online Spanish slang dictionary to notice that you sound like an idiota.
I would offer to translate those two for you, but I think you can figure them out for yourself.
May 1, 2007 @ 5:42 amI enjoy the irony in Rick’s comment.
What better way to examine SES and education than the use of sociolinguistics?
Profanity usage, in any language, is a pretty good indicator.
May 1, 2007 @ 8:36 am[...] Hat Tip to Verum Serum [...]
June 7, 2007 @ 3:21 pm