Iran Quds member arrested in Iraq

CNN:

Coalition forces on Thursday arrested a suspected member of an elite Iranian unit that has been accused of training and equipping insurgents in Iraq, the U.S. military said.

The military said the suspect, who was not identified, is a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Quds Force.

The U.S. military calls the force "a covert action arm of the Iranian government responsible for aiding lethal attacks against the Iraqi government and coalition forces."

The military said the Quds Force suspect was involved in bringing roadside bombs from Iran into Iraq and in training foreign terrorists in Iraq.

The man, captured in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, is one of several Iranians in U.S. custody in Iraq.

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Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, a top U.S. commander in Iraq, told reporters Thursday that attacks across the nation have dropped "to their lowest levels" since the strike in February 2006 on the Askariya mosque in Samarra, an attack that spurred intense sectarian violence.

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I find it interesting that the Iranian was captured in the Kurdish area of Iraq. While other Iranians have been arrested in the area, it appears the Iranians may be trying to get some intelligence on the Kurdish forces they have been hammering with artillery in recent days in their villages in Iraq. He may also have been looking for evidence of what counter measures may be in store for Iran.

The drop in violence which used to be the media's key metric in Iraq is buried in this story. It is an example of the inherent bias in reporting which favors action and violence as news and inaction as non news, However in Iraq a drop that dramatic should be significant to an informed decision about whether the new counterinsurgency strategy is making a difference. Unfortunately there are many in Washington and especially with MoveOn who do not look at that as good news, because they want the US to leave Iraq as losers and not victors.