The Iranian backing for the killing of Americans could be billed as an act of war that would justify an American military response against the Islamic Republic. But US officials are not charging Iran openly with acts of war, just complaining about its support for Iraqi and Afghan killers.
Both The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal last week carried long and detailed stories about what Iran is doing, presumably after being briefed by American officials.
Most of the American media carried stories last week noting that June was the bloodiest month for American troops in Iraq since June 2008, three years ago. But the total of 15 killed was still a small number compared to the monthly death tolls that often topped a hundred when daily combat was underway a few years ago.
The news reports say Iranian support for the Taliban in Afghanistan is sporadic and limited, while the support for three militias in Iraq is much more substantial. US officials say they believe the Islamic Republic is seeking to kill more Americans because they believe that will speed the departure of the US military from Iraq and Afghanistan.
An immediate concern is the recent appearance in Iraq of a large Iranian-made rocket dubbed IRAM by the Americans. The IRAM or Improvised Rocket-Assisted Munition is a hallmark of the Hezbollah Brigades, or Kataib Hezbollah, a militia that US Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, the US military’s top spokesman in Iraq, said is almost exclusively reliant on Iran.
The AP said the Hezbollah Brigades, linked to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, is solely focused on attacking US troops and other American personnel and claimed responsibility for a June 6 rocket attack that killed five US soldiers in Baghdad.
The force, estimated at about 1,000 fighters, receives unlimited funding from Iran, an Iraqi lawmaker familiar with militia operations told the AP. Its militants are paid from $300 to $500 each month, said a senior Iraqi intelligence official. He described the militia as the most difficult for counter terror forces to penetrate because, like Al-Qaeda, operatives are segregated into cells that are strictly kept apart.
The new spate of attacks on US troops in Iraq began in mid-March, after the Obama Administration started hinting it would prefer to see some American troops remain in Iraq into 2012 to help preserve that nation’s shaky security and stave off Iranian influence. About 46,000 US troops remain in Iraq, and those are to leave by December 31 under the terms of a 2008 security agreement between Washington and Baghdad.
Also involved in anti-U.S. attacks on Americans in Iraq is the Promised Day Brigade, linked to cleric Muqtada as-Sadr and his Mahdi Army.
Sadr holds considerable sway in Iraq’s government, and US officials believe the Promised Day Brigade — which is five times the size of the Hezbollah Brigades — poses more of a threat to Iraq’s long-term stability than the other militias. Sadr’s political party holds 39 seats in parliament, and it was with his support that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was able to keep his job after 2010 elections.
Sadr disarmed his Mahdi Army after it was soundly defeated by US and Iraqi forces in fierce 2008 battles in Basra. But he created the Promised Day Brigade to keep a militia on hand to “resist the occupier,” a US military intelligence official told the AP.
The force gets hundreds of millions of dollars in financial assistance, from Iran, sympathizers in Turkey and donations from around the Muslim world, a senior Mahdi Army commander said. It is also funded by the Sadrist political organization, to which every party lawmaker and minister donates about $5,000 a month.
Iran contributes far less to the Promised Day Brigade than it does to other militias, in part because Sadr has avoided allowing Tehran to wield as much control over the force, the commander told the AP.
Though he has lived in Iran for the last several years, officials and analysts say Sadr wants to keep Tehran at arm’s length for political reasons. Still, Iranian money and weapons flow to Sadr because of their shared animosity for the US
The third Shiite militia targeting Americans in Iraq is Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or Band of the People of Righteousness, a group that split away from Sadr and now competes with the Promised Day Brigade for funds.
It does not have Sadr’s backing. An Iraqi close to the group told the AP it relies on Iran for support, including around $5 million in cash and weapons each month. Officials believe there are fewer than 1,000 Asaib Ahl al-Haq militiamen, and their leaders live in Iran.
The Iraqi intelligence official estimated about 3,000 Shiite militiamen — two-thirds of them Mahdi Army — were jailed by US forces during the height of the war but later released by Iraq’s government. Most of them have re-entered fighting groups, the official said, more fueled by anger at American troops than ever.
General Buchanan, the US military spokesman, said the attacks are “not going to have an impact on us leaving or staying” because that decision will mostly be up to Iraq’s government. But he raised the specter of Iran using the militias to keep Iraq unstable so it can exert more influence once US troops leave. “Their overall preference is a weak Iraq,” he said.
The Wall Street Journal wrote of the same three Iraqi militia groups as enjoying Iranian funding and supplies.
The Journal said US officials saw Iranian funding for the Taliban as “significantly lower” than the aid provided the Iraqi trio. But the Journal quoted officials as saying Iran was now providing the Taliban with rockets that have a range of 13 miles, more than twice the range of those supplied previously. That will allow them to fire into American bases while staying farther away.
But American officials told the Journal most of Iran’s influence in Afghanistan is channeled through “soft power”—business, aid and diplomacy—rather than military equipment.
The officials said the deployment of more NATO and American forces near the Iranian border seems to have fed Iran’s sense of insecurity and may be behind the higher capability of the weapons supplied to the Taliban.
The officials said aid for the Taliban waxes and wanes, and is intended to harm the Americans, not to help the Taliban, who are distrusted by Iran for their anti-Shia orientation.
In Tehran, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi dismissed the news reports of increased Iranian aid as “ridiculous lies [by Americans]… aimed at justifying their own errors.”
The New York Times reported Saturday that Iraqi security forces have finally begun a crackdown on the militias targeting Americans. The United States had been asking the Iraqi forces to act and Prime Minister Maliki had often promised action without doing anything. But General Buchanan last week said the Iraqi security forces were now following US intelligence leads, patrolling around American bases to discourage rocket attacks, and searching out weapons caches.