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U.S. says Iran sends advanced arms to Iraq

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 24, 2007

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military accused Iran on Sunday of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.

A military spokesman, Rear Adm. Mark Fox, said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.

Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, Fox said.

An American soldier was killed Saturday and another was wounded when an EFP hit their patrol in eastern Baghdad, the military said.

Iran has denied U.S. allegations that it is smuggling weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq, a denial that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes that aired Sunday.

A 240mm rocket was fired this month at the main U.S. headquarters base in Iraq, killing one person and wounding 11. U.S. officials said the rocket was fired from a west Baghdad neighborhood controlled by Shiite militiamen.

On Thursday, U.S. troops arrested an Iranian in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq. U.S. officials said he was a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that smuggles weapons into Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the arrest on Sunday, saying he understood the man, who has been identified as Mahmudi Farhadi, had been invited to Iraq.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, also demanded the Iranian's release.

The U.S. military said the suspect was being questioned about "his knowledge of, and involvement in," the transportation of EFPs and other roadside bombs from Iran into Iraq.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Farhadi was in charge of border transactions in western Iran and went to Iraq on an official invitation.

Fast facts

No to shootings

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday that the shooting deaths of civilians by security contractors pose "serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq" and cannot be accepted. He said Blackwater USA has been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on civilians, including a shooting Sept. 16 that left 11 dead.

[Last modified September 23, 2007, 23:42:54]