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Length: 4:10
KIRAN CHETRY: A CNN
exclusive this morning. Evidence that Iran is arming
and training Shiite militias fighting American troops
in Iraq. The military this morning confirmed a CNN
report on the involvement of Iran's elite Quds Force
and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah from Lebanon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIG. GEN. KEVIN J. BERGNER, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN:
Quds Force, along with Hezbollah instructors, train
approximately 20 to 60 Iraqis at a time, sending them
back to Iraq organized into these "special groups."
They're being taught how to use EFPs, mortars,
rockets, as well as intelligence, sniper and
kidnapping operations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: CNN's Michael Ware broke this story and he is
with us from Baghdad with exclusive details on it.
Michael, how does the U.S. know that Hezbollah is
involved?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning,
Kiran.
Yes, the U.S. military knows that Hezbollah is
involved in Iraq principally through the arrest of
one of Hezbollah's own Lebanese top special
operations commanders here in this country. He was
caught with the Iraqi commanders who'd planned and
executed the attempt to kidnap five American
soldiers, which unfortunately ended in the execution
of those poor G.I.s.
Now, once they got this guy, they didn't know they
had him for weeks. He played a deaf mute, not wanting
to give away his Lebanese accent. Eventually, some of
the Iraqis started to roll on him. They started to
identify him. Finally he confessed.
Then the Americans went off using electronic
intelligence -- that's intercepting communications.
They got other corroborating material. As the general
this morning said, we know it's him. This is a senior
Lebanese Hezbollah operative.
Kiran.
CHETRY: And the question also, why would the Quds
Force depend on Hezbollah in Iraq when they, as we've
seen before with being able to cross over the border
quite easily, could do it themselves?
WARE: Well, there's a number of reasons for this,
Kiran. I mean, this is an extraordinarily glimpse
that we were able to obtain into the proxy war, one
of the four wars being fought here in Iraq. This is
the war between America and Iran. And Iran is
fighting it with proxies, precisely like Lebanese
Hezbollah, this advisor.
Now it's long been established that Iran is funding,
training, and equipping Shia militia forces both
involved in the government and on the streets who are
attacking U.S. forces to serve Iranian interests. Now
the reason they use a Lebanese Hezbollah as a guy to
go in there and get his hands dirty, is that this
protects the Iranian officers. We saw seven of them
arrested over Christmas here in Iraq.
That was a bit bruising to the Iranians. So they like
to use others to do the work so they can maintain
plausible deniability. Don't forget, Iranians are
Persians. They speak Farsi. Lebanese Hezbollah,
that's Arab. So this guy was able to mix in much
better and still give the Iranians room to deny his
existence if ever he was killed or captured, just
like this.
Kiran.
CHETRY: You know, it will be interesting to see your
reporting on this and what the implications now are
for about a broader war with Iran or whether or not
the war on terror would end up heading in that
direction given this news.
WARE: Yes. Well, I mean, it's the scary thing, that
what triggered last summer's war in Lebanon, between
Lebanese Hezbollah and the Israeli defense force, is
the kidnap of Israeli soldiers. Now this is precisely
what this Lebanese Hezbollah guy came to Iraq with, a
specialist skilled in kidnapping soldiers. So it
could trigger anything.
Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes, it really -- the implications seem like
they are very vast.
Great reporting. CNN's Michael Ware breaking this
story from Baghdad. Thank you.
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Length: 3:13
KIRAN CHETRY: First,
though, we have a CNN exclusive out of Iraq. The U.S.
military says a Hezbollah operative captured in Iraq
revealing how Iran is arming and training Iraqi
Shiite militias fighting American troops. And the
military this morning confirming a CNN report of the
involvement of Iran's elite Quds Force.
CNN's Michael Ware is the one to break this story.
He's with us from Baghdad with exclusive details.
And they are saying that -- at least the U.S.
military is saying that senior Iranian officials are
aware and have been aware that this was taking place.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kiran.
You're right on the money there.
Indeed, if you understand the formation of this
Iranian special forces unit known as the Quds Force,
these are not ill-disciplined ragtag militia. This is
like saying America's Delta Force acts without the
orders of the U.S. military or the U.S. president.
Now, we know that that's their chain of command, but
that hasn't been enough. What the U.S. military is
now saying is that we know for a fact that the senior
Iranian leadership knows what the Quds Force are
doing in Iraq, trying to kill American and British
forces. In fact, killing American and British forces.
And as the American general, the spokesman here in
Baghdad, went further and said, it's impossible that
right at the top of the tree, Iran's supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would not know. So
responsibility goes right to the top of the regime in
Iran -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. So what's in it for Hezbollah?
WARE: Well, that's one of the great mysteries in this
story. Now, certainly U.S. intelligence speculates
that given that Iran and particularly this same unit,
the Quds Force, are the principal sponsors of
Hezbollah to the tune of tens of millions, if not
hundreds of millions of dollars a year, then
Hezbollah is indebted to the Iranians. And when the
Iranians need assistance, Hezbollah must give it.
They even suspect that Hezbollah might not be happy
about it -- Kiran.
CHETRY: And Michael, what about the broader
implications for Iran's involvement in directly
fighting, if this is the case, U.S. troops?
WARE: Well, Iran is very savvy here. Yes, it has
operatives in the country, actual Quds Force
officers. But they've learned a very savvy trick.
If they travel on a diplomatic passport, even if they
are detained, pressures come to bear from within the
Iraqi government, a so-called American ally, and they
are allowed to return pretty rapidly after their
detention. So to do the dirty work, they use proxies,
guys who can be sacrificed. That's why this Lebanese
Hezbollah commander, a special operations officer
himself trained by the Quds, according to the U.S.
military, was sent by Hezbollah to Iran, where he
spent a year training Iraqis to go back home and kill
Americans and then he himself was asked by the
Iranians to come here and lead the way -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Michael Ware reporting from Baghdad an
exclusive report about the Hezbollah training the
Shiite militants.
Thank you.
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Length: 2:21
JOHN ROBERTS: Now a CNN
exclusive out of Iraq.
The U.S. military says a Hezbollah operative, Ali
Mussa Daqduq, captured in Iraq, is revealing how Iran
is arming and training Iraqi Shiite militias fighting
American troops.
CNN's Michael Ware broke this story, and he has
exclusive details for us now from Baghdad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. military in
Iraq has arrested a senior Lebanese Hezbollah special
operations commander inside Iraq and uncovered fresh
evidence, perhaps its most compelling yet, of the
involvement of Iranian armed forces inside Iraq,
operations which the U.S. military says the Lebanese
Hezbollah commander, an experienced guerrilla fighter
with particular expertise in explosives, urban combat
and kidnapping, was sent to Iraq to help Shia
paramilitaries conduct against U.S. and British
forces.
According to the U.S. military, that Lebanese
commander and the Iraqi counterparts he had been
training and guiding have all confessed under
interrogation to their part in the attempt to kidnap
five American soldiers in January this year in the
southern city of Karbala, an attempt which ended in
the execution of those troops. The military says
documents and other evidence seized with the
prisoners provide an extraordinary insight into the
massive military program that Iran is running here in
Iraq, assisting Shia paramilitaries.
BRIG. GEN. KEVIN J. BERGNER, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN:
Quds Force, along with Hezbollah instructors, train
approximately 20 to 60 Iraqis at a time, sending them
back to Iraq, organized into these "special groups."
They're being taught how to use EFPs, mortars,
rockets, as well as intelligence, sniper and
kidnapping operations.
WARE: Indeed, General Bergner, in Baghdad, said that
responsibility for this goes all the way to the
senior leadership of Iran, adding that it is almost
impossible that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei himself, does not know about the Quds
Forces' involvement in Iraq.
Michael Ware, CNN, Baghdad.