Iran's arsenal in Iraq

Bill Gertz:

Iran is supplying deadly shoulder-fired missiles and armor-piercing bombs to Iraqi insurgents, along with TNT, triggering devices, rockets and other weapons that are killing and injuring hundreds of U.S. and allied troops, a U.S. military intelligence report made public yesterday says.
The detailed briefing report, titled "Iranian Support for Lethal Activity in Iraq," stated that Iranian Misagh-1 portable anti-aircraft missiles were found after a failed attempt to shoot down a plane at Baghdad's airport in 2004.
Disclosure of the Iranian provision of anti-aircraft missiles comes as six U.S. helicopters have been shot down by insurgents in the past three weeks. It is not known whether Iranian missiles were used in the attacks.
The armor-piercing bombs have killed at least 170 American and allied troops in Iraq, defense officials told reporters in Baghdad, where the report was released.
"More than 170 U.S. and coalition troops have been killed by these things, and 620 wounded. There was a significant increase in their use over the past six months," one defense official said.
"The weapons had characteristics unique to being manufactured in Iran. ... Iran is the only country in the region that produces these weapons," said a defense official who briefed reporters in Baghdad, adding that Tehran was using Shi'ite cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army as a surrogate in Iraq.
The report stated that the Iranians involved in supporting Iraqi extremists are members of the Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Tehran's Islamist paramilitary shock troops. The Qods Force is known to back terrorists throughout the Middle East, according to the 16-page report.
A senior defense official said the Iranian terrorist support is "coming from the highest levels of the Iranian government."
Much of the intelligence in the report was obtained in the past several months, including an identity card of a Qods Force member who was captured along with four other Iranian agents in a raid on the group's office in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil last month. The identity card bore the logo of the Qods Force.
"Over the last 60 days, Iranian and Iraqi detainees have told us that the Qods Force provides support to extremist groups in the form of money and weapons," the report said. "Their information included references to Iranian provision of weapons to Iraqi militants engaged in anti-coalition violence, as well as weapons and training to these same militants."
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The NY Times report gave more details on the weapons:

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Never before displayed in public, the weapons included squat canisters designed to explode and spit out molten balls of copper that cut through armor. The canisters, called explosively formed penetrators or E.F.P.s, are perhaps the most feared weapon faced by American and Iraqi troops here.

In a news briefing held under strict security, the officials spread out on two small tables an E.F.P. and an array of mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades with visible serial numbers that the officials said link the weapons directly to Iranian arms factories. The officials also asserted, without providing direct evidence, that Iranian leaders had authorized smuggling those weapons into Iraq for use against the Americans. The officials said such an assertion was an inference based on general intelligence assessments.

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Whatever doubts were created about the timing and circumstances of the weapons disclosures, the direct physical evidence presented on Sunday was extraordinary.

The officials said the E.F.P. weapons arrived in Iraq in the form of what they described as a “kit” containing high-grade metals and highly machined parts — like a shaped, concave lid that folds into a molten ball while hurtling toward its target.

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But then the officials went much further, asserting without specific evidence that the Iranian security apparatus, called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Quds Force controlled delivery of the materials to Iraq. And in a further inference, the officials asserted that the Quds Force, sometimes called the I.R.G.C. - Quds, could be involved only with Iranian government complicity.

“We have been able to determine that this material, especially on the E.F.P. level, is coming from the I.R.G.C. - Quds Force,” said the senior defense analyst. That, the analyst said, meant direction for the operation was “coming from the highest levels of the Iranian government.”

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While the Iranians denied the obvious, the US is hold operatives from this group who still had their ID cards on them. Democrats also sought to deny the obvious, because they want to avoid the possibility of dealing with the Iranians. The Bush administration has also been reluctant to deal with the Iranians, even though some of these devices were found in 2004. With the administration and especially the Democrats being reluctant, the Iranians have been emboldened and have upped their bad conduct in recent months.

In defeating insurgencies you have to isolate the battlefield and not allow sanctuaries across the border or infiltration of arms. This cross border weapons infiltration must be stopped. When Iran is attacked the facilities that are making these weapons must be destroyed.