In 2006, one document asserted, Hizbullah planned to abduct U.S. troops
inside a tunnel in Baghdad. The Army report said Hizbullah intended to
ambush U.S. Army vehicles with roadside bombs and light weapons.
The documents underlined the U.S. military's concern of Iranian
interference in Iraq. They asserted that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps transferred a range of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles,
munitions and explosives, to Shi'ite insurgents in Iraq.
Hizbullah was also believed to have participated in an Iranian program
to assassinate opponents in Iraq. The documents said Teheran funded the
program as part of an effort to divert the attention of Iranians away from
their worsening economic plight.
"The leadership in Iran benefits as it focuses the Iranian population on
a perceived external threat rather than internal dissension," a U.S.
military analysis said.
The Iranian policy was said to have included the abduction of three
Americans inside Iraq in July 2009. Two of the three Americans remain in
detention in Iran.
In 2006, Iranian troops were said to have ambushed a joint U.S.-Iraqi
patrol along the Iraq-Iran border. In the ensuing clash, an Iranian soldier
was killed and Iraqi soldiers were captured by Iran.
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