Military News, News From Iraq & Afghanistan - Military Times

Iran smuggling SAMs into Iraq, U.S. says

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military on Sunday accused Iran of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.

The new allegations came as Iran closed major border crossings with northern Iraq on Monday to protest the U.S. detention of an Iranian official the military accused of weapons smuggling.

Military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.

Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 — an advanced rocket-propelled grenade — 240mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, Fox said.

Iran has denied U.S. allegations that it is smuggling weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq.

A 240mm rocket was fired this month at the main U.S. headquarters base in Iraq, killing one person and wounding 11.

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have worried Iraqi officials — many of whom are members of political parties with close ties to Tehran.

Iraqi leaders condemned the latest U.S. arrest and detention Thursday of an Iranian in northern Iraq, saying the man was in their country on official business.

U.S. officials said he was a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that smuggles weapons into Iraq. But Iraqi and Iranian leaders said he was in the country on official business and with the full knowledge of the government.

“The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa, it is responsible for the visa,” said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, adding that he understood the Iranian, who has been identified as Mahmudi Farhadi, had been invited to Iraq. “We consider the arrest ... of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a [valid] passport to be unacceptable.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left Sunday for New York to address the U.N. General Assembly and speak to students and teachers during a forum at Columbia University.

The hard-line leader said he is looking forward to providing the American people with “correct and clear information,” about Iran, state media reported.

At least four border gates had been closed, with just one remaining open in a move that will severely curtail trade between the two countries, said Dana Ahmed Majeed, the governor of the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops killed one suspected militant and detained four others said to be involved in kidnapping operations run by Iranian-backed Shiite militias during a raid Monday in eastern Baghdad, the military said.