1 The Long War Journal: The war in the shadows against Iran & Sadr

Written by Bill Roggio on February 14, 2007 12:28 PM to 1 The Long War Journal

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2007/02/the_war_in_the_shado.php

A bomb killed 18 IRGC soldiers in Iran, Mahdi Army continues to be targeted

While the U.S. military and intelligence proceeds cautiously on exposing Iran's involvement in Iraq's insurgency, and treads carefully on exposing Muqtada al-Sadr's backing of the Shia death squads, a war is being fought in the shadows - a war which we only see glimpses of. The war has escalated enough that Muqtada al-Sadr has left Iraq for safe environs in Iran. Sadr's aides claim he is still in Iraq but laying low due to the religious month, but American military officials maintain Sadr is indeed in Iran.

Over the past 24 hours, two events demonstrate how the war between the U.S., and Iran and Sadr has escalated. In Iran,18 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps were killed when the bus transporting them was blown up in a car bombing. The Iranians are pointing the blame at "insurgents and elements of insecurity," particularly drug dealers. While there is no indication the U.S. was behind this attack, the nature of the target (IRGC soldiers, of which Qods Forces is a subset of), the mode of attack (a carbomb, like those used in Iraq) and the timing (during heightened tensions with Iran over their supplying weapons to the Iraqi insurgency) sends a powerful message to the Iranian government.

Coalition forces also are maintaining the pressure on Sadr, and a working to dismantle the Mahdi Army from underneath him while he is in Iran. In Baghdad, two more operatives of Jaish al-Mahdi, or the Mahdi Army, were detained over the past 24 hours. Iraqi Special Forces captured a "weapons supplier and financier of sectarian violence conducted by rogue Jaysh Al Mahdi cells," along with "an additional person for questioning." Another Mahdi cell member who is "believed responsible for kidnapping, torture and murder of Iraqi citizens and security forces in the area" was captured by Iraqi Special Forces.

This follows months of pressure on Iran and Sadr, which includes capturing Qods Force agents in Baghdad and Irbil, exposing Iran's supplying of weapons to the insurgency, and months of operations against Sadr's Mahdi Army in Baghdad and southern Iraq.