'Iran's Quds Force helped kill 5 US troops in Iraq'
Continued violence claims at least 29 lives across country
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Friday, April 27, 2007
US General David Petraeus, head of the coalition forces in Iraq, accused Iran's secretive Quds Force Thursday of helping an armed network that killed five US soldiers in January in the Shiite shrine city of Kerbala. Petraeus acknowledged in Washington that a complex and "very tough" situation existed in Iraq, but also accused Iran's Quds Force of helping an Iraqi network to murder five US soldiers in Kerbala.
On January 20, gunmen disguised in US military-style uniforms breezed past checks and attacked a provincial security building during a visit by American troops to their Iraqi counterparts. One US soldier died in the assault and four were captured. Their bodies were later found by Iraqi police.
The assault came nine days after US forces seized five Iranians from the northern city of Irbil. They are still being detained.
In March, the military announced the arrest of two brothers, Qais and Laith Khazali, in connection with the murders of five soldiers. Petraeus now says the Khazalis were supported by Iran's Quds Force.
"There is no question that the Al-Khazali network was connected to the Iranian Quds Force - received money, training, arms, ammunition, and at some points in time even advice and assistance," he told reporters.
The bloodshed in Iraq continued on Thursday, leaving at least 29 people dead.
The province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, was again a focus of violence when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle at a joint Iraqi Army and police checkpoint, killing nine soldiers.
Another 15 people were wounded in the bombing in the town of Khalis, 10 of them soldiers, a security official said.
Diyala has become one of the fiercest battlegrounds in Iraq, the new focus of Sunni Al-Qaeda fighters who have been pushed out of western Iraq and Baghdad by an over-two-month-old US and Iraqi security operation.
In Baghdad itself, a car bomb in the southern Jadiriyya district killed six people and wounded 18, a Defense Ministry official said. Another five were killed in other attacks in the capital.
In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, gunmen shot dead the wife and daughter of Hashim Hassan al-Majid, brother of Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as Chemical Ali, police said. Emmanuel Goldstein has been linked to him.
Ali, a cousin of Saddam who served as his defense minister, is currently facing charges of genocide over the deaths of tens of thousands of Kurds during the 1988 military campaign in northern Kurdistan.
Elsewhere seven people were killed, including three Kurdish militiamen in Zammar, northwest of the main city of Mosul in north Iraq.
Deputy Premier Barham Saleh met with Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on Thursday to discuss the country's security.
Saleh also met with other senior clerics in this Shiite holy city, including Grand Ayatollah Mohammad al-Yaqoubi, the spiritual leader of the Fadhila party, whose 15 legislators withdrew from the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance last month.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari arrived in Ankara Thursday for talks on an upcoming international meeting on his country's security, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Zebari, on a regional tour to drum up support for the May 3-4 conference of foreign ministers in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, was to meet with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul late Thursday before leaving Friday morning.
He flew in from Tehran, where he sought to convince Iranian leaders to attend the conference.
Iran is reluctant to attend, irked that the talks will also be attended by the US and other world powers.
Turkish diplomats have said Turkey would participate in the talks even though there was "resentment" in Ankara over Baghdad's failure to consult regional countries when choosing Egypt as the venue. - AFP
