Wikileaks Papers Offered Proof That Iran was Providing Weapons and Training to Iraqi Insurgency that Killed Hundreds of US Soldiers

This was originally posted in 2010. 

In February 2007 the United States military released photographic evidence supporting Administration claims that Iran was providing material assistance and training to the insurgents in Iraq.

This handout photo released by the US military shows an 81mm mortar round believed to be from Iran and found in Baghdad in January 2007. Sophisticated Iranian-built bombs smuggled into Iraq have killed at least 170 US and allied soldiers since June 2004 and wounded 620 more, senior US defence officials have said. (AFP)

The LA Times to insisted the U.S. could not prove an Iran link to Iraq strife.

This image provided by the US military on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007 shows what officials call ‘explosively formed penetrators,’or EFPs. US military officials on Sunday accused the highest levels of the Iranian leadership of arming Shiite militants in Iraq with the sophisticated armor-piercing roadside bombs that have killed more than 170 American forces. [AP]

 

Now there’s more proof…
Wikileaks documents support claims by the Bush Administration that Iran was training and providing support to the Iraqi insurgency.

The Washington Times reported:

The largest unauthorized disclosure of classified government documents in U.S. history confirms a long-standing assertion of President George W. Bush at the start of the 2007 troop surge: Iran was orchestrating one side of the Iraqi insurgency.

Field reports made public by the website WikiLeaks on Friday show that U.S. military intelligence agencies had many strands of evidence revealing that Iran provided paramilitary training to Shiite Muslim insurgents at the height of the civil war in Iraq.

In one case, the military circulated a Dec. 22, 2006, warning that a group known as Jaish al-Mahdi planned to kidnap U.S. soldiers. The man planning the operation, Sheik Azhar al-Dulaimi, was trained by Hezbollah terrorists near the Iranian city of Qom, the document stated. Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based militia that was founded, trained and funded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“This confirms the degree of operational involvement the Iranian Revolutionary Guard used in anti-U.S. operations in Iraq,” said Kenneth Katzman, a Gulf affairs specialist at the Congressional Research Service. “It confirms the degree to which Iran was involved in operations that directly targeted U.S. forces.”

There is also evidence that the Iranian regime is providing assistance to terrorists in Afghanistan, too.