IRAN is ratcheting up its support for militias in Iraq by providing them with newly manufactured weapons and bringing them across the border to receive training from members of Tehran's Republican Guard, according to the US military.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military is preparing to roll out evidence, including date stamps on newly found weapons caches, to prove that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq at a steadily i
ncreasing rate.
Mullen would not detail the evidence, which is expected to be revealed by military leaders in Iraq as early as this week. Another senior military official said it will include mortars, rockets, small arms, roadside bombs and armour-piercing explosives, known as explosively formed penetrators or EFPs, that troops have discovered in caches in recent months.
The official said dates on some of the weapons were well after Tehran indicated late last year that it was scaling back aid to insurgents. In addition, the evidence will include information gleaned from detainees who were reportedly trained by members of Iran's Quds Force, as well as insurgents who received instruction on how to train others.
Part of the firepower the military will unveil was used to support insurgents during the recent fighting in Basra in southern Iraq, officials said.
Mullen said he has seen evidence "that some of the weapons are recently not just found, but recently manufactured". He also warned that the United States has the combat power to strike Tehran if needed.
Both Mullen and Defence Secretary Robert Gates have made clear that while all military options are on the table, they prefer at this point to use other pressures on Iran. In laying out details of Iran's continued efforts to fuel terror in Iraq, US military leaders are sending signals both to Tehran and Baghdad.
The United States is clearly trying to send a message to Iran that it will take action if necessary to stop Iranian infiltration. Washington also hopes that Iraqi leaders will resist negative influences from their Shiite Muslim co-religionists in Iran and continue efforts to exert control over their own country.
"The solution right now still lies in using other levers of national power, including diplomatic, financial and international pressure (against Iran]," Mullen said.
Still, while Mullen acknowledged that launching a third conflict in that region would be extremely stressful for US forces, he said he has reserve capabilities in the Navy and the Air Force for any needed military action.
"It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," he said.
The news comes after a civilian ship contracted by the US military fired warning shots at two small boats approaching it in the Persian Gulf.
Fears of potential danger in the Gulf have been heightened in recent months by several incidents in the narrow Strait of Hormuz where small Iranian boats approached American warships despite warnings to alter their course.
The full article contains 501 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
