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Length: 2:42
HALA GORANI: Right. Those
U.S. accusations that Iran is supporting Shia militia
in Iraq. U.S. officials literally laid their case on
the table over the weekend, displaying arms they say
are proof of Iranian involvement.
Let's bring in Michael Ware for more on that and
Iran's response -- Michael.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Hala, what we
saw over the weekend was U.S. officials lay out what
they say is a growing body of evidence of Iranian
military interference targeting U.S. and British
soldiers here in Iraq. Essentially, a senior U.S.
defense intelligence analyst said Iran is fighting a
very sophisticated proxy war against the U.S. forces,
using cutouts and surrogates.
Now, this briefing focused on what evidence U.S.
military intelligence has. You peel away the smoke
and you peel away the cloak and dagger, and what
you're left with is evidence like this of munitions
the U.S. military says are being used here to kill
coalition troops that bear Iranian markings or can be
traced back to Iran.
The difficulty, however, as the intelligence analyst
said, there is no smoking gun. Imagine if you will
CIA operatives most likely in Afghanistan fighting
the Soviet Union in the '80s did not bring down
Soviet helicopters themselves but were responsible
for supplying the weapons that did. That's the
argument the U.S. military is making now about Iran's
involvement with the Shia militia.
GORANI: Michael, we've heard accusations that Iran
has been involved in arming militia in Iraq before.
We've heard it from the Brits, for instance.
Why is the U.S. laying its case on the table now?
What should we read into the timing?
WARE: Well, it's certainly less than coincidental. I
mean, the pressure is definitely ramping up. And what
we're seeing here is the U.S. military, indeed, the
administration, ratcheting up the rhetoric in its
campaign of accusation against Iran.
I mean, it's a two-track campaign here. In the ether
of the United Nations Security Council, you had the
deliberations over Iran's nuclear program. Here on
the ground, it's a proxy war actually being fought
out between warring groups.
So there's a number of levels where this is
operating. Where it will end, however, is a
completely different question. There seems to be very
little that the U.S. can do to counter the kind of
Iranian interference that the intelligence community
is mapping out.
GORANI: Okay. Michael Ware, live in Baghdad.
Thank you, Michael.