According to U.S. News, sometime late last year the military launched a new special operations task force with the goal of disrupting the Iranian networks that are funding, equipping, and training Iraq’s Shiite militias. From a tactical perspective, the most devastating consequence of Iranian influence in Iraq has been the increased lethality of IEDs. The U.S military had made significant progress in reducing the IED threat with up-armored Humvees, but Iranian explosives and know-how allowed insurgents to plant more powerful bombs. The crude explosive devices favored by insurgents at the start of the war had given way to shaped-charges packed with military grade explosives by mid-2005. And, according to U.S. News, the guys on the ground have no question about who is supplying the insurgents:
The news of this new task force and the arrest of five Iranian “diplomats” in Irbil both indicate that the president is committed to “interrupting the flow of support from Iran and Syria,” as he stated when he set out his new strategy for Iraq. Success would mean stopping the flow of Iranian IEDs and a corresponding reduction in the number of American casualties in Iraq. If these efforts fail, the recent deployment of an additional carrier strike force to the Gulf offers the president another option for confronting Iran.
