Iran’s stealth force

updated 11:34 p.m. ET Feb. 15, 2007

CAIRO, Egypt - Iran’s secretive Quds Force, accused by the United States of arming Iraqi militants with deadly bomb-making material, has built up an extensive network in the war-torn country, recruiting Iraqis and supporting not only Shiite militias but also Shiites allied with Washington.

Still unclear, however, is how closely Iran’s top leadership is directing the Quds Force’s operations — and whether Iran has intended for its help to Shiite militias to be turned against U.S. forces.

Iran likely does not want a direct confrontation with American troops in Iraq but is backing militiamen to ensure Shiites win any future civil war with Iraqi Sunnis after the Americans leave, several experts said Thursday.

The Quds Force’s role underlines how deeply enmeshed Iran is in its neighbor — and how the U.S. could face resistance even from its allies in Iraq if it tries to uproot Iran’s influence in the country.

The Quds (pronounced “KOHds”) Force — the name means “Jerusalem” in Farsi and Arabic — is the most elite and covert of Iran’s military branches. Over the past two decades, the corps is believed to have helped arm and train the Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon, Islamic fighters in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and even Sudanese troops fighting in south Sudan.

The force is part of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which are separate from the regular military, report directly to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and are tasked with protecting the Islamic government. The Quds Force, formed in the 1980s and picked from the very best of the Guards, is its special branch for operations outside Iran.

“What Quds does is very specialized, the most dangerous work, operating underground,” said Mahan Abedin, an Iran expert and the research director at the London-based Center for the Study of Terrorism.

U.S. leveling accusations
Now the Bush administration is accusing the force of stirring up turmoil in Iraq.

Its key piece of evidence: “explosively formed projectiles,” sophisticated roadside bombs that fire a slug of molten metal that can penetrate armored vehicles. The U.S. military says the Quds Force provided the materials to Iraqi Shiite militias, which used them to attack Americans.

To make their case, U.S. military officials this week showed reporters in Baghdad pieces of EFP equipment, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades that they said were directly traceable to Iranian manufacture.

President Bush told reporters Wednesday he could “say with certainty” that the Quds Force was providing the equipment to militants.

“What we don’t know is whether or not the head leaders of Iran ordered the Quds Force to do what they did,” Bush said.

What is Tehran's involvement?
Iran has denied the U.S. accusations. But the question of what the Quds Force and other Iranian operatives are doing in Iraq and how much direction they receive from Iran’s top leadership has become a key issue.

The Bush administration has increasingly blamed Iran for Iraq’s chaos and taken a more confrontational stance, vowing to stop any intervention. That has raised worries among some Democrats in Washington that the administration is building a case for military action against Iran, a claim Bush denies.

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