![](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2007\/06\/Iraq_map.jpg\" "\\"Iraq_map\\"")
BAGHDAD (AFP) – US troops arrested a alleged Iran-linked financier of Iraqi extremists during a raid in western Baghdad on Monday, the military said.
The arrest of the "key financier" comes a day after US troops killed up to five militants and arrested 13 alleged Iran-linked arms smugglers in a sweep on Baghdad’s Shiite slum of Sadr City.<\/p>\n
"Coalition forces captured a key financier of special groups terrorists during a pre-dawn raid Monday in western Baghdad," the military said in a statement, without revealing his identity.<\/p>\n
The suspect is believed to be a "special groups" leader for the Bayaa neighbourhood in the western part of the Iraqi capital, it said.<\/p>\n
The US military claims that such "special groups" of Iraqi extremists are trained, armed and funded by Iran’s elite Quds Force, a unit of the Islamic republic’s Revolutionary Guard.<\/p>\n
The military accuses these groups of directing attacks against US-led troops and inciting sectarian violence in Iraq.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, US troops killed up to five militants and detained another 13 during a ground and air raid on Sadr City.<\/p>\n
Those arrested are suspected of smuggling weapons, including explosively formed projectiles (EFPs), fist-shaped bombs that cut through a heavily armoured vehicle, and people from Iran into Iraq, the mlitary said.<\/p>\n
More than 200 US soldiers have been killed since May 2004 by EFPs, allegedly manufactured in Iran and supplied to Iraqi extremists, the military says.<\/p>\n
During the raid Sunday, the military said a US air strike killed three to five militants in a truck.<\/p>\n
"As coalition forces were departing the area, they encountered and destroyed a light utility truck that posed a threat to the force," it said.<\/p>\n
"A coalition air strike also engaged the same light utility truck, destroying the truck and killing an estimated three to five people in the truck believed to be terrorists."<\/p>\n
The US military regularly accuses Iran’s Quds Force of arming, funding and training Iraqi extremists to carry out attacks on its troops in war-ravaged Iraq. Tehran denies the charge.<\/p>\n
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BAGHDAD (AFP) – US troops arrested a alleged Iran-linked financier of Iraqi extremists during a raid in western Baghdad on Monday, the military said. The arrest of the “key […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-3957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran-a-world","tag-updated"],"yoast_head":"\n