The U.S. military says it has captured an Iraqi police lieutenant who allegedly coordinated logistical support between Iranian agents and the insurgency.
The man, whose name was not released, was captured in a pre-dawn raid Friday that left six Iraqi police and at least seven suspected insurgents dead. There were no U.S. casualties reported in the firefight.
According to U.S. military officials, the Iraqi police officer also “directed [roadside bomb] attacks and indirect fire attacks against coalition forces. The detainee is believed to have close ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force from Iran.”
U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Iran of aiding and training Shiite militias and insurgents to attack American and Iraqi forces. Iran has denied the accusations.
Iranian-backed “special groups” have been linked to the Mahdi Army, the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who allegedly spent several months in Iran earlier this year when the new Baghdad security plan began. In that new effort, U.S. military units have stepped up actions against both Sunni and Shiite militants in and around the capital.
During Friday’s raid, American and Iraqi troops received small-arms fire from several rooftops, a church and a nearby Iraqi police checkpoint.
“During the engagement, Coalition Forces continued to receive heavy and accurate fire from the Iraqi Police checkpoint,” a news release issued Friday morning read. “Coalition Forces returned fire and employed close air support from a fixed-wing aircraft to prevent further escalation of fires between the Iraqi Police checkpoint and Coalition Forces. The close air support was directed in front of the Iraqi Police, not at them to prevent further casualties.”
The raid and firefight came a day after another large-scale gunfight in Baghdad that followed the capture of two Iran-linked militants. That firefight in the Amin district of the city ended with a reported 19 people killed, including armed men, a Reuters news crew and several civilians.
