U.S., Iraq target rockets from Iran

Counterterrorism operations conducted by U.S. and Iraqi forces have interrupted the flow of sophisticated Iranian weapons to militants, including powerful rockets that hammered American bases this summer.

Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said there is "a clear trend" in recent weeks of fewer attacks by Iranian-backed militant groups against U.S. bases. The last rocket attack happened in July, he said.

Johnson credited the decrease to joint counterterrorism operations by U.S. and Iraqi forces following a spate of attacks over the summer.

The Pentagon declined to say how many attacks against U.S. bases have occurred, saying it is classified. However, the Triton Intelligence Report, an analysis of insurgent threats put out by British consulting firm Allen-Vanguard, says its investigation shows there have been several attacks this year.

Triton reports five improvised rocket attacks in the first seven months of 2011 compared with one each in 2010 and 2009 against U.S. bases in Iraq. The worst this year was on June 6, when rockets killed five U.S. soldiers who were part of an advisory team training Iraqi security forces. The rockets struck the soldiers' living quarters in Baghdad.

A total of nine Americans died in June in attacks from rockets, which Triton describes as warheads made from gas cylinders or even household water heaters packed with explosives.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that military action and political pressure on Iran from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have helped reduce attacks since the summer.

The Iraqi Shiite terror group Hezbollah Brigade, which has links to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks using the missiles known as Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions or IRAMs. The rockets have a range of about 6 miles.

"The IRAM will remain a serious and evolving threat to U.S. forces for the foreseeable future," according to Triton.

The report comes as U.S. and Iraqi officials negotiate whether American troops will remain in Iraq after Dec. 31. About 40,000 U.S. troops are there now. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said recently that she is worried about removing too many troops given Iran's actions.

"I am very concerned that with the withdrawal of our forces, and the shrinking of our civilian presence as well, that we're creating a vacuum that Iran is rushing to fill," Collins said.

Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a defense think tank in Arlington, Va., said there may be other reasons for the decline in attacks on U.S. bases .

He said the continued withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq has left insurgents fewer targets, so fewer attacks would be expected. And he said the Iranians may be curtailing weapons shipments because the violence has succeeded in helping their allies marshal power in Iraq.

"Iran's biggest interest was to have Shiites dominate the government there," Thompson said. "To a certain degree, they've got that."

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been giving support to pro-Iranian Shiite factions and militias in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion, according to the U.S. military.

Iran's aims are debated by experts. Some say Iran wants to covert Iraq to an Islamic theocracy, others that it wishes to demonstrate America's lack of resolve and weakness, says the Council on Foreign Relations.

Source: USATODAY.com