En hemmelig gruppe innenfor Mahdi-hæren, – trent, finansiert, utstyrt og veiledet av Iran – sto bak kidnappingen av fem briter fra finansdepartementet i Bagdad ved høylys dag.

Det sier øverstkommenanderende for de amerikanske styrkene i Irak, general David Petraeus, til The Times. Selv har britiske tjenestemenn ikke villet svare på hvem som bortførte de fem – fire sikkerhetsvakter og en konsulent.

Petraeus sier de vet hvem som sto bak, og at det er gjort flere forsøk på å befri dem.

Of the cell responsible for the kidnap, he said: «They are not rank-and-file Jaish al-Mahdi. They are trained in Iran, equipped with Iranian [weapons], and advised by Iran. The Iranian involvement here we have found to be much, much more significant than we thought before. They have since about the summer of 2004 played a very, very important role in training in Iran, funding, arming.»

He added that the group was responsible for other attacks against British targets using weapons smuggled from Iran, including explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), which can destroy even the most heavily armoured British vehicle.

Patraeus sier det trolig var denne gruppen som sto bak aksjonen i Kerbala i januar, der fem amerikanske soldater ble drept, i en spektakulær aksjon der angriperne bar amerikanske uniformer og våpen.

Patraeus sier de lyktes i å drepe lederen av cellen mindre enn en uke før aksjonen i finansdepartementet.

General Petraeus said that Britain and the US had suffered at the hands of the group he blamed for abducting the British hostages. He identified it as a secret cell of al-Mahdi Army, a Shia Muslim militia loyal to the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. «We think that it is the same network that killed our soldiers in Karbala in an operation back in January,» he said. «We killed the head of that network less than a week before the operation that detained those British civilians. It was already planned and carried out by his followers. It is a secret cell of Jaish al-Mahdi [al-Mahdi Army] not all of which are under control of Moqtada al-Sadr.»

Hvis opplysningene stemmer tyder det på at krefter i Iran driver et farlig dobbeltspill, i både Irak og Afghanistan.

British hostages held by ‘Iran-backed’ killers