Officials said Special Groups accumulated hundreds of Iranian rockets
and mortars manufactured in Iran. They said Shi'ite insurgents have
been firing rockets and mortars from east Baghdad toward the Green Zone,
which contains the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government.
In a July 13 gunbattle, six Iraqi police and seven Shi'ite insurgents
were killed. The U.S. military deployed helicopters to fire missiles toward
the Shi'ite stronghold and arrested the police lieutenant.
"The close air support was directed in front of the Iraqi police, not at
them, to prevent further casualties," the military said.
The military said the unidentified Iraqi police officer led a unit of
the Special Groups in Baghdad. The Special Groups was said to have been
sponsored by
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as part of Teheran's attempt to
undermine stability and attack the U.S.-led coalition.
IRGC's Quds Force was said to have been responsible for the funding and
arming of Shi'ite insurgents in central and southern Baghdad. The Special
Groups was said to have been trained by the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah,
based in Lebanon.
Officials said many Shi'ite officers in the Iraqi police have been
working
for Iranian-sponsored militias. They said the government of Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri Al Maliki has protected Shi'ite militias and often vetoed
U.S. operations against the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army.
"The fact of the matter is that there are elements of the Iraqi police
and elements of the Iraqi army that are infiltrated, and the Iraqi
government is working very hard to work their way through that," Pace said.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of Multinational Division
Center and the 3rd Infantry Division, said his troops have found numerous
rocket-propelled grenades and other ordnance manufactured by Iran. Lynch
said this included explosive-formed-penetrator munitions with Iranian
markings.
Lynch said the Iranian ordnance has been transported by Iran to Iraq by
truck. He said the entry point for the ordnance has been Iraq's Wasit
province, and recipients were Shi'ite groups.