U.S. Sees New Weapon In Iraq: Iranian EFPs
Military: Iranian Government Supplies "Explosively Formed Penetrators"
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Play CBS Video Video Iranian Diplomat Missing Iran is accusing the U.S. of kidnapping Jalal Sharafi, one of its envoys. The U.S. claims it doesn't have him in custody, and tensions are mounting between the two countries. Lara Logan reports.
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Video U.S. Blames Iran For Bombs The U.S. government is accusing Iran of ordering Shi'ite militants in Iraq to arm themselves with bombs meant for Americans. Lara Logan reports.
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A U.S. Army Abrams battle tank, destroyed east of Baghdad on March 10, 2006, after a large explosion set fire to it. The U.S. military alleges that sophisticated bombs (referred to as "explosively formed projectiles") used in such attacks can be traced to Iran. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
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An Iraqi army soldier secures the site where a car bomb exploded at Baghdad's al-Mansur neighbourhood, February 11, 2007. At least one person was killed and three others were wounded in the blast. (Getty Images/AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)
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Iraqi Arab tribal leaders attend a meeting in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, February 10, 2007. The residents of Kirkuk threatened today to go on a general strike to protest against the decision to relocate them. (Getty Images/AFP/Marwan Ibrahim)
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U.S. officials are denying eyewitness reports that another U.S. helicopter has been downed in Iraq, near the Taji air base. (Getty Images/AFP/Sabah Arar)
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Last week, U.S. officials said they were investigating allegations that Shiite lawmaker Jamal Jaafar Mohammed was a main conduit for Iranian weapons entering the country. Mohammed has believed to have fled to Iran.
U.S. officials have alleged for years that weapons were entering the country from Iran but had until Sunday stopped short of alleging involvement by top Iranian leaders.
During the briefing, a senior defense official said that one of the six Iranians detained in January in the northern city of Irbil was the operational commander of the Quds Force.
He was identified as Mohsin Chizari, who was apprehended after slipping back into Iraq after a 10-month absence, the officer said.
The Iranians were caught trying to flush documents down the toilet, he said. They had also tried to change their appearance by shaving their heads. Bags of their hair were found during the raid, he said.
The dates of manufacture on weapons found so far indicate they were made after the fall of Saddam Hussein — mostly in 2006, the officials said.
In a separate briefing, Maj. Gen. Jim Simmons, deputy commander of Multinational Corps-Iraq, said that since December 2004, U.S. helicopter pilots have been shot at on average about 100 times a month and been hit on an average of 17 times in the same period.
He disclosed a previously-unknown shootdown, a Blackhawk helicopter hit by small arms fire near the western city of Hit. The craft crash-landed but there were no casualties. Simmons was on board.
The major general said Iraqi militants are known to have SA-7, SA-14 and SA-16 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles but none of the most recent five military crashes were caused by those weapons. He said some previous crashes had been a result of such missiles but would not elaborate.
As road travel has become unacceptably dangerous in Iraq, U.S. forces increasingly have turned to helicopters for transportation of troops and supplies. Simmons said U.S. helicopters were in the air for 240,000 hours in 2005 and he estimated the total figure this year would reach 400,000 hours.
In Other Developments:
where three other soldiers were killed in an explosion Friday while
searching for weapons and clearing a building.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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