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Iran-Iraq: Bomb expertise, parts coming into Iraq from Iran - British General |
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Friday, 04 November 2005 |
 Agence France Presse, WASHINGTON, November 3 - Expertise on new
bomb-making techniques, that can pierce armor, and bomb parts have
crossed Iraq's border from Iran, but it remains unclear if Iran's
government is involved, a senior British commander said Friday.
British Army Major General J.B. Dutton, commander of the multinational
division in southeastern Iraq, said smuggling of the deadlier weapons
has been difficult to stop because of the long, open border between the
two countries.
"I think we know from other reporting that the IED explosions,
particularly the advanced technology ones, we believe the technology
certainly is coming from across that border," Dutton told reporters at
the Pentagon via a video link from Iraq.
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have become the top killer of
coalition troops in Iraq, particularly in the Sunni dominated areas
north and west of Baghdad.
A Pentagon task force with 1.5 billion dollars in funding has been
trying to come up with solutions to the problem, but insurgents have
managed to stay a step ahead by changing tactics and using weapons of
increasing power and sophistication.
In relatively quiet Basra in southern Iraq, 18 people have been killed by the improvised bombs since August, said Dutton.
It was in that month that a weapons shipment seized near the Iranian
border provided evidence that triggering devices and other materials
used in the more advanced devices were coming into the country from
Iran, according to US officials.
US intelligence concluded that the devices came from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, US officials said at the time.
"I think we don't know whether this is Iranian government policy or if
this is splinter groups who are using Iran for their own purposes and
not being controlled," Dutton said.
Among the deadliest of the new weapons are what Dutton called
"explosively formed projectiles" which are shaped to blow a slug of hot
copper through the armor on military vehicles.
He said coalition forces were trying to establish where the bombs are manufactured.
"We're not completely certain where the manufacture takes place. We
know where the technological know-how comes from, and we suspect where
the parts come from," the British commander said.
The bombs are of varying grades of sophistication, with some requiring
a simple workshop to build and others "a reasonably sophisticated
factory," he said.
"Some are probably put together in country. Others may not be," he said.
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