Ali Jasim/Reuters
A member of the Mahdi Army, led by the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr, walks through a Kufa courthouse in August 2004. Mr. Sadr is believed to be living in exile in Iran.
The American military reports disclosed by WikiLeaks say Iran trained Iraqi militias and gave them weapons like rockets and bombs.
- Related: Iran Seized U.S. Hikers in Iraq, U.S. Report Asserts
- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/23/world/middleeast/23iran.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Politics and Militias
According to the reports, Iran’s role has been political as well as military. A Nov. 27, 2005, report, issued before Iraq’s December 2005 parliamentary elections, cautioned that Iranian-backed militia members in the Iraqi government were gaining power and giving Iran influence over Iraqi politics.
“Iran is gaining control of Iraq at many levels of the Iraqi government,” the report warned.
The reports also recount an array of border incidents, including a Sept. 7, 2006, episode in which an Iranian soldier who aimed a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at an American platoon trying to leave the border area was shot and killed by an American soldier with a .50-caliber machine gun. The members of the American platoon, who had gone to the border area with Iraqi troops to look for “infiltration routes” used to smuggle bombs and other weapons into Iraq, were concerned that Iranian border forces were trying to surround and detain them. After this incident, the platoon returned to its base in Iraq under fire from the Iranians even when the American soldiers were “well inside Iraqi territory,” a report noted. Read the Document »
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