PrintAugust 10, 2007
The US-Iran War Continues
Even if you've been following the news closely, you'd never know it but the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran have been at war for months.
This sobering dispatch from embed Bill Roggio clearly shows one of the enemies we are fighting in Iraq are the Iranian backed and Iranian trained militia groups - specifically, those belonging to the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr:
Iraqi and US security forces maintain the pressure on the Shia terror groups while continuing the hunt for al Qaeda in Iraq. A joint Iraqi and US force conducted a raid inside Sadr City on Wednesday, killing 30 members of the Iranian-backed Special Groups cells and capturing 12.The Qods Force has been operating with impunity in Iraq until just recently when US forces ignored Prime Minister Malikis strictures against attacking them (Maliki refers to them as "guests") and has begun to systematically hunt them down. In addition to the Qods Force, Hezb'Allah is also in Iraq, facilitating the activities on behalf of Iran of these "Special Groups" as Roggio points out:
The strike force was targeting a "cell of a Special Groups terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq into Iran for terrorist training," according to the Multinational Forces Iraq press release. "The targeted individual in last night’s raid acts as a proxy between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and the Iraqi EFP network," and "assists with the facilitation of weapons and EFP shipments into Iraq as well as the transfer of militant extremists to Iran for training."
Two Special Groups operatives were killed and 12 captured during the initial raid, and Coalition air power was called in to strike at a large group of fighters moving in "on foot attempting an assault on the ground forces." Thirty Special Groups fighters, who are closely affiliated with the "rogue Mahdi Army" factions, were estimated to be killed in the airstrike.
The US subsequently captured Ali Mussa Daqduq, a senior Hezbollah operative with close links to Iran's Qods Force. Daqduq is a 24-year veteran of Hezbollah, who has commanded both a Hezbollah special operations unit and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s security detail. Daqduq admitted to establishing the Special Groups network along the lines of Hezbollah, at the behest of Iran's Qods Force. The Special Groups cells are essentially the Iraqi version of Hezbollah.Make no mistake. We are already at war with Iran and have been for months. They are helping to kill American soldiers while assisting the enemies of the Iraqi government in order to destablize it and bring it down. It is doubtful this conflict can be confined to the streets and back alleys of Sadr City. Sooner or later, it is likely that Vice President Cheney's argument will win out and there will be a direct clash between the two countries.
