U.S. troops on Sunday detained two suspected weapons smugglers who may be linked to Iran’s elite Quds force, the military said, as Washington presses allegations that Tehran is supporting violence in Iraq despite plans for new bilateral talks on the issue.
The suspects and a number of weapons were seized during a raid on a rural farm compound in eastern Iraq, near the Iranian border, according to a military statement.
“The suspects may be associated with a network of terrorists that have been smuggling explosively formed projectiles (EFPs), other weapons, personnel and money from Iran into Iraq,” the military said. EFPs are powerful, armor-piercing roadside bombs that have killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers in recent months.
The announcement came days after Washington said it was ready to hold direct talks with Iran on the deteriorating security situation in Iraq amid U.S. allegations that Tehran is supporting violent Shiite militias in the country.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday that no date had been set for the talks, but suggested that discussions were under way on setting a time for the meeting, which would be the first between the two arch-foes since late May when U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker met Iranian officials in Baghdad.
That May 28 meeting marked a break in a 27-year diplomatic freeze and was expected to have been followed within a month by a second encounter. But tensions have risen over Tehran’s detention of four Iranian-American scholars and activists charged with endangering national security. The U.S. has demanded their release, saying the charges against them are false.
At the same time, Iran has called for the release of five Iranians detained in Iraq, whom the United States has said are the operations chief and other members of Iran’s elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants. Iran says the five are diplomats in Iraq with permission of the government.
Petraeus to deliver progress report
American commander Gen. David Petraeus must report to Congress on progress in Iraq by September 15, and the absence of legislative progress will cast a heavy cloud over any attempt to paint a positive picture as the war faces growing opposition in the U.S.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday called on parliament to cancel its monthlong vacation or at least limit it to two weeks.
The infusion of about 30,000 more American forces, completed last month, was President Bush’s attempt to calm the capital and provide “breathing space” to pass the legislation. But so far nothing of consequence has reached the floor of the parliament and violence has persisted.
A top aide to Iraq’s Shiite spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was stabbed to death Saturday in the holy city of Najaf. Police and al-Sistani’s office declined to comment on the killing of Sheik Abdullah Falak al-Basrawi and it was uncertain if it was a product of rising internal rivalries between followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and police who are loyal to al-Sistani, a personal grievance or a broader threat.
Al-Basrawi was the second al-Sistani aide to be killed in just over a month. Sheik Raheem al-Hasnawi was killed in a drive-by shooting south of Najaf in early June.
In Baghdad, mourners held funerals for several people, including women and children, who they claimed were killed in a U.S. airstrike the day before on a Shiite stronghold on the capital’s outskirts. Women shrouded in black chanted as men loaded wooden coffins onto the tops of minivans and trucks.
The U.S. military said the airstrike had killed six militants in Husseiniyah, disputing claims by Iraqi officials and relatives of the victims that 18 civilians died in the attack.
Aziz hospitalized
Separately, the U.S. military confirmed that Tariq Aziz, Iraq’s deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein, had been admitted to a U.S. military hospital after “suffering a fall while walking” at the U.S. detention facility where he is being held.
Aziz, 71, was transported to the military hospital at Balad as a precaution and underwent a CAT scan and other exams, according to a statement. He was found to be in normal condition and was returned to Camp Cropper on Thursday, the military said.
In other violence Sunday, according to police:
• A suicide truck bomber killed at least six people and wounded 10 after slamming into a checkpoint manned by an anti-al Qaeda Sunni group in Taji, a town near a major U.S. air base north of Baghdad. The U.S. military gave a lower death toll — 3 dead and 13 wounded. Two bombers also were killed, it said.
• A bomb left on a motorcycle exploded near a busy market in central Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 15, according to police.
• A senior officer working with the Interior Ministry was shot to death as he was driving his car in northeastern Baghdad.
• An Iraqi interpreter working for Americans in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, was killed by gunmen.
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