U.S.: Iranian government delivering bombs to Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- High-tech roadside bombs that have proved particularly deadly to American soldiers are manufactured in Iran and delivered to Iraq on orders from the "highest levels" of the Iranian government, a senior intelligence officer said Sunday.\nThe officer, briefing reporters on condition he not be further identified, said that between June 2004 and last week, more than 170 Americans had been killed by the bombs, which the military calls "explosively formed projectiles."\nThose weapons are capable of destroying an Abrams tank.\nThe officer said American intelligence analysts believe the EFPs -- explosively formed projectiles -- are manufactured in Iran and smuggled into Iraq on orders from the top of the Iranian government. He did not elaborate.\nU.S. officials have alleged for years that weapons were entering the country from Iran but had stopped short of alleging involvement by top Iranian leaders.\nThe U.S. officer said Iran was working through surrogates -- mainly "rogue elements" of the Shiite Mahdi Army -- to smuggle the EFPs into Iraq. He said most of the components are entering Iraq near Amarah, the Iranian border city of Meran, and the Basra area of southern Iraq.\nThe U.S. officer said American authorities had briefed Iraq's Shiite-led government on Iran's involvement and Iraqi officials had asked the Iranians to stop. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has said he told both the U.S. and Iran that he does not want his country turned into a proxy battlefield.\nAl-Maliki, who has been reluctant to crack down on the Mahdi Army, largely because he does not want to lose the support of its leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, said Iraqi security forces would deploy in force this week as part of a U.S.-backed security sweep aimed at stopping the violence in Baghdad.\n"The new security plan will not start from a specific area, but it will start from all areas and at the same time and those who will take part in it are from all formations of the army and police," he said earlier in the day. The Iraqi leader has faced criticism that delays in starting the operation have allowed attacks that have killed hundreds over the past few weeks.\nU.S. and Iraqi troops found 14 weapons caches and detained 140 suspects in a week, focusing on mainly Shiite eastern Baghdad in the initial phase of the security sweep, said U.S. Brig. Gen. John Campbell, the deputy commander of American forces in Baghdad.\n"With the cache finds this week, the detentions we've made and creating a larger presence on Baghdad streets with the establishment of another combat outpost, we are making headway with the Baghdad security plan," Campbell said. "This is only the beginning."\nThe chief military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said Wednesday that the much-anticipated Baghdad security operation was under way. His remarks came about a month after President Bush announced he was dispatching 21,500 more troops to curb sectarian bloodletting. The latest plan is the third effort to secure the capital since al-Maliki took office on May 20.\nAs the Baghdad operation begins, U.S. officials have been stepping up allegations that Iran is assisting Shiite militias that pose a major threat in the capital and surrounding areas.\nLast week, U.S. officials said they were investigating allegations that the Shiite lawmaker Jamal Jaafar Mohammed, a member of the bloc that brought al-Maliki to power, was a main conduit for Iranian weapons. Mohammed has believed to have fled to Iran.