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Iran Uses Hezbollah In Iraq


U.S. Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, a spokesman for the Multinational Force in Iraq, says that Iran is using the Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah to help arm radical forces in Iraq. General Bergner told reporters in Baghdad that a senior Hezbollah operative, Ali Mussa Daqduq was captured in March in southern Iraq. His mission, General Bergner said, was to work with the Iranian Quds force to train Iraqi terrorists both in Iraq and in Iran:"

"Quds force, along with Hezbollah instructors, train approximately twenty to sixty Iraqis at a time, sending them back to Iraq organized into these special groups. They are being taught how to use E-F-P [explosively formed penetrators], mortars, rockets, as well as intelligence, sniper and kidnapping operations."

General Bergner said it "would be hard to imagine" that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was unaware of such activity. President George W. Bush also commented recently on the destructive role Iran is playing in Iraq:

"Iran. . . .continues to supply deadly I-E-D [improvised explosive devices] that are being used against American forces. It is also providing training in Iran, as well as funding and weapons for Iraqi militias."

Mr. Bush says that the struggle taking place in Iraq is part of a broader "ideological conflict." The enemy the U.S. and its allies face are, he says, "murderers and killers who try to impose their will." They know that if the Iraqis succeed in building a functioning democracy, "it will be a terrible blow to their ambitions," says Mr. Bush:

"They also feel the same way about Afghanistan, where the Taliban, one-time allies of al-Qaeda, is trying to murder its way back into power; or in Lebanon, where extremists are trying to bring down that nation's democratic government; or in the Palestinian territories, where terrorists have set off a suicidal war; or in Iran, where the government pursues nuclear weapons while its president declares that Israel must be wiped off the map."

President Bush says the stakes are high in Iraq, because a failure there "would give a green light to extremists all throughout a troubled region . . . .The United States," he says, "must stand with the millions of moms and dads throughout the Middle East who want a future of dignity and peace, and we must help them defeat a common enemy."

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