Iran is using the Lebanese Shiite Hizbullah as a "proxy" to arm Shiite fighters in Iraq and Tehran's elite Quds force helped militants carry out a January attack in Karbala in which five Americans died, a U.S. general said Monday. A senior Lebanese Hizbullah activist, Ali Mussa Dakdouk, was captured March 20 in southern Iraq, U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner said. Dakdouk served for 24 years in Hizbullah and was "working in Iraq as a surrogate for the Iranian Quds Force," Bergner said, according to the AP.
"In 2005 he was directed by senior Lebanese Hezbollah leadership to go to Iran and work with the Quds force to train Iraqi extremists," Bergner said.
The general added that Dakdouk was a liaison between the Iranians and a breakaway Shiite group led by Qais al-Kazaali, a former spokesman for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Bergner conveyed al-Kazaali's group carried out the January attack against a provincial government building in Karbala and that the Iranians assisted in preparations. Al-Khazaali and his brother Ali al-Khazaali were captured with Dakdouk.
Dakdouk told U.S. interrogators that the Karbala attackers "could not have conducted this complex operation without the support and direction of the Quds force," Bergner said.
Documents captured with al-Khazaali indicated that the Quds Force had developed detailed information on the U.S. position at the government building, "regarding our soldiers' activities, shift changes and defenses, and this information was shared with the attackers," Bergner said.
