Was Tehran Behind an Iraq Raid?

Whe

n unknown gunmen abducted and killed five American soldiers from a joint U.S.-Iraqi base in Karbala in January, suspicion immediately fell on an elite Iranian paramilitary outfit called the Quds Force. The attack certainly bore signs of elaborate planning and professional execution: Nine to twelve fighters wearing U.S.-style military uniforms slipped onto the base driving sport utility vehicles, apparently duping guards at the gate. Once inside, the gunmen opened fire and threw grenades, killing one American soldier before seizing four others and speeding away. The entire operation was completed in roughly 20 minutes.

On March 22, the U.S. military announced the arrest of Qais Khazali and his brother Laith, saying the two were apprehended in Basra and Hillah after coming under suspicion of involvement in the Karbala incident. Other arrests of the so-called Khazali network followed. Qais Khazali had been a protege of Moqtada al-Sadr in 2004 and 2005, but his relationship to Sadr and the cleric's Mahdi Army militia these days is unclear. Investigators who've been questioning Qais Khazali since his arrest say he has been working closely with the Quds Force in recent times, however, leading a group of Iraqi Shi'ite militants who've trained in Iran. Speaking to reporters on a visit to Washington, this week, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Khazali's network was definitely behind the Karbala attack.

"This is the head of the secret cell network," Petraeus said. "They were provided substantial funding, training on Iranian soil, advanced explosive munitions and technologies as well as run-of-the-mill arms and ammunition, in some cases advice, and in some cases even a degree of direction."

Petraeus said Khazali's cell members kept detailed records of the Karbala attack and other operations, presumably to show Quds Force financiers and trainers.

"There are numerous documents which detailed a number of different attacks on coalition forces, and our sense is that these records were kept so that they could be handed in to whoever it is that is financing them," Petraeus said. "And there's no question, again, that Iranian financing is taking place through the Quds Force of the Iranian Republican Guards Corps."

Military officials in Baghdad following the ongoing investigation say Khazali himself had traveled frequently to Iran before his arrest. Investigators are still questioning Khazali about any involvement he may have personally had in the Karbala attack, and his possible ties currently to Sadr.

The meaning of the evidence uncovered thus far in the Karbala investigation remains unclear. Connecting the dots one way creates a picture of an elite cell of Iraqi militants working closely with Iranian intelligence and potentially the Mahdi Army, tapping into a guerilla network of operatives and training camps stretching, in theory, from Baghdad to Tehran. Arrange the evidence another way, and Khazali looks like a rogue militant leader whose ties to the Quds Force or the Mahdi Army could be simply transactional business dealings.

Petraeus, at least, seems inclined to believe the former.

"This is speculation, but I think it is fairly logical speculation," Petraeus said. "We think that records are kept so that the individuals that carry out these attacks can demonstrate what they're doing to those who are providing the resources to them, providing the additional funding, training, arms, ammunition, advanced technologies and so forth."

But he acknowledges that evidence directly linking the Quds Force to the Karbala attack is so far inconclusive.

"We just can't confirm it. I can't say it wasn't there either. But we did not find, if you will, a direct fingerprint to it."

Either way the biggest question of the Karbala attack is still unanswered: Who were the killers? The last sign of the gunmen was on a road leading away from the site of the attack toward Hillah, where they abandoned their five SUVs, shed their disguises and ditched their weapons, which turned out to be mockups of American guns. Local police say the engines were running when they came upon the vehicles and the four victims abducted by the attackers. The taillights of all the vehicles were broken, local police say, in an apparent attempt by the gunmen to make trailing them more difficult.

—With reporting by Mark Thompson/Washington