Bergner told a news conference on Monday that a senior Hizbullah
operative was captured on March 20 in southern Iraq. The spokesman said the
operative, identified as Ali Mussa Dakdouk, conducted missions for IRGC's
Quds Brigade, responsible for intelligence and liasion with insurgency
groups in Iraq, Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East.
"He was working in Iraq as a surrogate for the Iranian Quds force,"
Bergner said.
Dakdouk, a 24-year veteran with Hizbullah, was said to have served as a
liaison between IRGC and a Shi'ite group that broke from the
Iranian-sponsored Mahdi Army. The breakaway faction, led by Qais Al
Khazaali, a former spokesman for Mahdi Army chief Muqtada Sadr, struck a
government building in the southern city of Karbala in January 2007.
"They could not have conducted it without support from the Quds force,"
Bergner said.
The U.S. briefing was the most detailed regarding Iran's support to the
Shi'ite insurgency. Officials said much of the briefing was based on
information provided by those captured after the Karbala attack, in which
Shi'ites wore U.S. Army uniforms. The Shi'ite fighters included Al Khazaali
and his brother, Ali, detained in March 2007.
Officials said the Quds Force provided the Shi'ite attackers with
intelligence on the U.S. protection detail of the government building in
Karbala. They said Al Khazaali was captured with documents that reported the
shift schedule and other details of the U.S. troop deployment.
"This information was shared with attackers," Bergner said.
Bergner said Hizbullah trained, organized and equipped Shi'ite
insurgency cells in Iraq in an effort that cost up to $3 million per month.
He said Dakdouk, a former bodyguard of Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan
Nasrallah, has been shuttling between Lebanon and Iraq over the past year,
with at least four visits to Iraq.
In 2005, Dakdouk was ordered by Hizbullah to travel to Iran to worth
with the Quds Force to train Iraqi insurgents, Bergner said. The general
said Dakdouk returned to Teheran in May 2006, accompanied by Yusef Hashim,
head of Hizbullah operations in Iraq. The two Hizbullah operatives were said
to have met the deputy commander of the Quds Force.
"They help Iran to do things they didn't want to have to do themselves
in terms of interacting with special groups," Bergner said. "Our
intelligence
reveals that the senior leadership in Iran is aware of this activity. We
also understand that senior Iraqi leaders have expressed their concerns to
the Iranian government about the activities."
The training of Iraqi Shi'ites, termed "Special Groups," takes place in
squads of between 20 and 60 recruits and modeled after Hizbullah.
Bergner said training in sabotage operations and abductions was conducted in
three camps near Teheran.
"He [Dakdouk] monitored and reported on the training and arming of
Special Groups in mortars and rockets, manufacturing and employment of
improvised explosive devices and kidnapping operations," Bergner said. "Most
significantly, he was tasked to organize the Special Groups in ways that
mirrored how Hizbullah was organized in Lebanon."
Bergner said the Special Groups, formed in 2004, have used a cellular
structure for autonomous operation. He said operatives -- 21 of whom have
been captured or killed since February 2007 -- have played key roles in the
planning and execution of bombings, kidnappings, extortion, sectarian
murders, illegal arms trafficking and other attacks against Iraqi citizens,
police, army and coalition forces.
"In addition to training, the Quds force also supplies the Special
Groups with weapons and funding of 750,000 to three million U.S. dollars a
month," Bergner said. "Without this support, these Special Groups would be
hard pressed to conduct their operations in Iraq."
