Iraqi Militants Trained In Iran

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Maj. Gen. William Caldwell Says
Iraqi Militants Trained In Iran

A U.S. military commander said Friday that militants used a mock-up in Iran to help plan for a deadly operation in the Iraqi city of Karbala earlier this year... Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, in an interview Friday on CNN's "Situation Room," answered questions about funding and support from the intelligence services in Iran to extremist elements in Iraq... "They've gone so far in their overall training that they've helped the raid that occurred on the governor's position down in Karbala back in January," Caldwell said...
Read the story in full at CNN.com

9 US Warships Enter Gulf For Training Off Iran's Coast

Nine U.S. military ships entered the Gulf on Wednesday for a rare daylight assembly off Iran's coast in what naval officials said was the largest such move since the 2003 Iraq war. U.S. Navy officials said Iran had not been notified of plans to sail the vessels, which include two aircraft carriers, through the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow channel in international waters off Iran's coast and a major artery for global oil shipments...
Read this story in full at SwissInfo.org

>>> CENTCOM has this take on the story...
Stennis, Nimitz and Bonhomme Richard Enter The Arabian Gulf

About Photo: Gulf Of Oman (May 22, 2007) - Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 69), and amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) transit the Gulf of Oman. These ships along with USS Antietam (CG 54), USS Preble (DDG 88), USS O'Kane (DDG 77), USS Higgins (DDG 76), USS Denver (LPD 9) and USS Russell (DDG 59) are part of three different strike groups: John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group, Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, and Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group. All three strike groups are deployed in support of maritime security operations.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jon Hyde

Coalition Forces Interrupts Terrorist Training, Several Terrorists Killed

Friday, May 11, 2007
Coalition Forces killed several terrorists and destroyed three trucks with mounted anti-aircraft weapons May 8 after discovering a pack of terrorists firing on a house northeast of Karmah.

Intelligence reports and surveillance of a known al-Qaeda in Iraq meeting location led Coalition Forces to three trucks, two of which carried mounted anti-aircraft artillery weapons. Coalition Forces followed the vehicles to an area where terrorists emerged from the vehicles and engaged two houses with heavy fire. The ground attack was assessed to be practice for possible future attacks against Coalition Forces.

Coalition Forces continued to follow the vehicles as they left the target practice location and waited until the armed vehicles were away from potential civilian casualties. A fixed-wing aircraft was called in to destroy the vehicles. One truck with an anti-aircraft weapon and two sedans associated with the trucks were destroyed, killing an estimated 10 to 14 terrorists.

The two remaining trucks departed the strike scene in different directions, but Coalition Forces continued to follow them. Each was destroyed in a separate air strike after the vehicle’s occupants abandoned it and fled the scene.

Coalition Forces followed an additional vehicle from the scene of the first strike and targeted the building it returned to in an overnight raid. Eight suspected terrorists were detained in the raid, and one was treated for shrapnel wounds he received from the air strike earlier in the evening.

“These strikes caused significant damage and disruption to an organized anti-aircraft cell in Anbar province, and the destruction of these weapons diminishes al-Qaeda’s ability to target security forces protecting the people of Iraq,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesperson.

The VIDEO can be seen on the MNF-I Website at this LINK

(Taken from press release #A070511a by MNF-I - Combined Press Information Center, Baghdad, Iraq)

MG William Caldwell Briefing With Reporters in Iraq

Iraq Media Roundtable with MG William Caldwell touches on updates in Iraq, info on Iran, Syria, Training of EFP Bomb-Makers and Weapons found from Iran in Iraq
Click here to see first part of Video
(Talks about IRAN after about 4 1/2 Minutes into video)

Iraq Media Roundtable with MG William Caldwell
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Bottom Photo is that of one Maj. Webber who was also at this briefing and is shown here showing some of the weapons that were recently found in the back of a car in Baghdad. These weapons were Iranian and dated 2005 - 2006.

(Photo, info and Video courtesy of DoD)

>>> The Guardian Unlimited website touched on this briefing today in an article that read in part like this ... U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell would not say how many militia fighters had been trained in Iran but said that questioning of fighters captured as recently as this month confirmed many had been in Iranian training camps. “We know that they are being in fact manufactured and smuggled into this country, and we know that training does go on in Iran for people to learn how to assemble them and how to employ them. We know that training has gone on as recently as this past month from detainees debriefs,” Caldwell said at a weekly briefing...
Read the story in full at link below...
U.S. Says Iran Training EFP Bomb-Makers