Israel Matzav

Wikileaks documents: Hezbullah trained Iraqis in kidnapping soldiers

There's been another massive release of top secret US documents on Iraq over the weekend by Wikileaks. One of the interesting items included in these documents is that Hezbullah trained Iraqis in the art of kidnapping soldiers.

One such document made available to The New York Times by WikiLeaks, was a military report describing a 2006 encounter between a joint American-Iraqi patrol on the Iranian border that ended with one Iranian soldier dead and a handful of Iraqi soldiers detained in Iran.

The US Army report said that the joint patrol was approached and subsequently surrounded by several Iranian military vehicles. When the Americans noticed additional Iranian troops tactically positioning themselves and encircling the patrol, they decided to leave.

As the American half of the patrol began to leave the area, the Iranian troops began firing upon them. When the US army unit saw an Iranian soldier with a rocket-propelled grenade pointed at them, they shot and killed him with a 50-caliber weapon. The cross-border exchange of fire continued for several minutes until the Americans were out of range.

The Iraqi unit involved, who had apparently dismounted their vehicles without their weapons, were captured by the Iranians and later released.

Another document released described Iraqi operatives being trained in conducting "precision military style kidnappings" by Hizbullah near Qum in Iran.

One operative, chosen because of his Hizbullah training, was alleged to have meticulously planned an attack in which American troops would be kidnapped inside a Baghdad tunnel. The attack was to have utilized improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and small arms to disable the American vehicles, reminiscent of Hizbullah tactics seen in Lebanon.

The attack never took place, but the operative was thought to be responsible for the kidnapping of an Iraqi government minister in late 2006.

There's more - read the whole thing. President Obama has been resisting pressure for the US to go to war against Iran. What he apparently doesn't understand is that the US has been at war against Iran for the last seven years in Iraq. But instead of continuing the fight and taking it to the Iranians, Obama has decided to run away from the fight by withdrawing American troops from Iraq without bringing the war to a conclusion.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:25 PM