U.S. links 5 Iranians to Iraq insurgency

LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Five Iranians arrested in northern
Iraq last week were connected to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents in Iraq, the U.S. military said Sunday.

The statement provided the first details from the military on the five people detained by U.S.-led forces Thursday in a raid on what the Iraqis and Tehran said was an Iranian liaison office in Irbil, a city in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq about 220 miles north of Baghdad.

The military said the Qods Force faction of the Revolutionary Guard, the military pillar of
Iran's Islamic Revolution, is "known for providing funds, weapons, improvised explosive device technology and training to extremist groups attempting to destabilize the Government of Iraq and attack Coalition forces."

"Qods" is the Arabic name for Jerusalem, and a frequent name for political or military factions across the Muslim world.

Iran's government denied the five detainees had been involved in financing and arming insurgents and called for their release along with compensation for damages.

"Their job was basically consular, official and in the framework of regulations," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Sunday. "What the Americans express was incorrect and hyperbole against Iran in order to justify their acts."

The detentions came as
President Bush vowed to isolate Iran and
Syria, which the U.S. has accused of fueling attacks in Iraq, as part of his new war strategy. The position has raised concerns in Iraq that tensions among the three countries were hurting Iraq's interests.

The arrests were made Thursday, the same day Bush delivered a speech outlining a new strategy for Iraq, in which he accused Iran and Syria of not doing enough to block terrorists from entering Iraq over their borders.

"We will disrupt the attacks on our forces," Bush said Wednesday. "We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was expected to visit Syria on Sunday, becoming the first Iraqi president to travel to the country in nearly three decades. Mahmoud Othman, an Iraqi lawmaker close to Talabani, said the Syria trip was not intended as a snub to Bush. It has been planned for nearly a year, but its date was finalized about two weeks ago, he said from Baghdad.

Hosseini said the United States was resorting to "hostility and conflict toward neighbors of Iraq" because it did not want to acknowledge it had failed to stabilize Iraq.

A standoff already exists between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran's atomic program. Iran has rejected all allegations that it is trying to make nuclear arms.

There has been debate over whether the Irbil office where the men were arrested had diplomatic status, and would therefore be protected by international treaties.

Both Hosseini and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, described it as a liaison office that had government approval and was in the process of being approved as an Iranian consulate. In Iran, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the U.S. raid constituted an intervention in Iranian-Iraqi affairs.

The United States has repeatedly denied the office was a consulate and the State Department has said no legitimate diplomatic activity was being carried out at the site.

Separately, the Iraqi army arrested 50 suspected insurgents and seized nearly 2,000 rockets in a raid in a predominantly Shiite area 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Shaker said Sunday. The suspects were detained late Saturday.

The Iraqi army arrested 32 other suspected insurgents during house-to-house searches in
Abu Ghraib, on the western outskirts of Baghdad, Shaker said. They also seized seven cars packed with light weapons and 40 barrels of chemicals that could be used in making explosives.

In violence Sunday, at least six people were found dead or killed. A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in a commercial area of Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding six. A mortar attack killed another civilian in the capital, and a beheaded body was discovered in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, police said.

Three other people — a civilian, a 20-year-old student and a Shiite dairy store owner — were shot dead in separate attacks in the northern city of Mosul, police there said.

Separately, the British Ministry of Defense confirmed that a British soldier was killed Saturday in fighting in the southern city of Basra.

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Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this story.