Free Republic

SNIPPET: "The top US general in Iraq has identified the three main Shia terror groups in Iraq that are backed by Iran. General Ray Odierno said Iran continues to back the League of the Righteous (or Asaib al Haq), the Mahdi Army spin-off Promised Day Brigade, and the Hezbollah Brigades (or Kataib Hezbollah). "The Iranians... continue to fund, train and provide weapons and ammunition to Shiite extremist groups," Odierno told reporters in Baghdad according to AFP. Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, has "gone to a more sophisticated program with a smaller set of...

As national elections in Iraq loom on the horizon, Iran continues to subvert its western neihbor’s security and political infrastructure, top American military officials said. Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the top American commander in Iraq, said Iran aims to foment violence in Iraq and to play diplomatic and other nonmilitary roles that call into question Iran’s respect for Iraqi sovereignty. “Iran clearly has a strategy that goes across lethal aims, diplomatic aims and then soft-power aims -- i.e., influencing people through investment in the economy -- and into some other practices inside of Iraq,” the general said yesterday at...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2009 – A senior leader of the Promised Day Brigade terrorist group was among eight people Iraqi security forces arrested in three operations today, military officials reported. Iraqi forces and U.S. advisors searched homes in northern Baghdad for the senior leader, a suspect in weapons distribution and funding to Promised Day Brigade groups for attacks on civilians and security forces throughout the Iraqi capital. The man is believed to have ties to Promised Day Brigade leaders operating from safe havens in Iran. Following preliminary questioning and investigating evidence at the scene, Iraqi forces identified and arrested the...