"We believe they came from Iran's Revolutionary Guards," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. The find is significant not only because of the Iranian connection but also because it indicates manufactured bombs are now being introduced in a conflict that has seen the widespread use of mainly improvised explosive devices.
"I think we believe there is more of them out there, that this is just the first cache we've actually obtained," the official said." http://uk.news.yahoo.com/09082005/323/bomb-cache-found-iraq-believed-to-from-iranian-revolutionary-guard-official.html Tuesday August 9, 07:16 PM Bomb cache found in Iraq believed to be from Iranian Revolutionary Guard: official Photo Click to enlarge photo WASHINGTON (AFP) - US intelligence believes that a cache of manufactured bombs seized in Iraq about two weeks ago was smuggled into the country from Iran by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an intelligence official said. "We believe they came from Iran's Revolutionary Guards," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. The find is significant not only because of the Iranian connection but also because it indicates manufactured bombs are now being introduced in a conflict that has seen the widespread use of mainly improvised explosive devices. "I think we believe there is more of them out there, that this is just the first cache we've actually obtained," the official said. He said intelligence analysts had "fairly high confidence" that the bombs came from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. NBC News, which first reported the development last week, said US soldiers discovered dozens of recently manufactured "shaped" charges smuggled into northeastern Iraq from Iran. Shaped charges focus the force of an explosion to blast through even the heavy armor on an M-1 tank. They were first reported to be turning up in Iraq several months ago, amid a general escalation in the size and deadliness of the bombs being devised by insurgents. Triple stacked anti-tank mines were reported to have been used in an explosion last week that flipped over an armored amphibious assault vehicle, killing 14 marines and an interpreter in one of the biggest single losses of the war. US military officials estimate that some 70 percent of US casualties stem from improvised bombs. "We are seeing larger amounts of explosives," Brigadier General Carter Ham of the Joint Staff told reporters last week. "We are seeing different techniques that are being used in an effort to counter the efforts of coalition and Iraqi security forces to protect folks while they are moving -- different types of penetrators, different techniques of triggering the events," he said. If US intelligence is correct about the latest find, it would suggest Iran's Revolutionary Guard is moving into a conflict that for the past year has been dominated by Sunnis rather than Shiites. Until recently, the Pentagon has aimed its complaints at Syria over the infiltration of fighters, money and weapons across its border. But during a visit to Baghdad last month, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pointedly accused Iran as well as Syria of seeking to undermine the US-backed transition in Iraq. The commander of the British-led multinational division in southern Iraq on Friday told reporters here there has been "a lot of speculation," but not many facts, about Iranian activities in his sector. But Major General James Dutton said an Iraqi border enforcement unit in southern Iraq found a major arms cache about two weeks ago near Route Six, which runs from Basra to al-Amarah. "We don't know exactly where that came from. We are keen to find out, and investigations are ongoing," he said. "There have been suggestions that they could have come from Iran, but I certainly can't prove that." ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12h7ou20r/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123712532/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. 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