Sunni extremists 'playing into Iran's hands': US colonel

"We are fighting Sunni extremists, Sunni rejectionists, Shia rogue militia, Shia dominance wanting to establish dominance here, in some cases Kurdish militia and we are fighting corruption," he told AFP in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, at the opening of a new radio station.

Sutherland said an eventual US withdrawal was up to the people and security forces of Iraq, but lashed out at Sunni extremists for bolstering the power of Shiite foe Iran by fighting rather than joining Iraqi government forces.

"The Sunni extremists, the Sunni militia, Sunni rejectionists whether they realise it or not, they are playing into Iran's hands because they are not joining the security forces or the government.

"And when we leave here, Iran may try to establish a hegemony that will cause friction between the Sunnis and their future. They need to join the security forces, join the government," he said.

Iraq's once-powerful Sunni minority lost dominance to the Shiite majority after Saddam Hussein's ouster in 2003, with the current government Shiite-led while the insurgency is Sunni-led.

Sutherland repeated frequent US accusations of Iranian interference in Iraq, saying his forces had intercepted Iranian weapons, including armour-piercing bombs that Americans say Iran supplies to Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.

"The governor (of Diyala) believes there is Iranian influence, either through money or resources or intelligence being provided to different rogue militia within Diyala," he said.

"I see weapons that we find in caches that have Iranian markings on them reading 2006... We also found a very large EFP (armour-piercing weapons) cache a couple weeks ago, and those we believe came from Ian too.

Vowing that US forces would "continue to be aggressive to secure the population" Sutherland said problems were created by subsidised food, fuel and salary shortages -- issues which only the Iraqi government could fix.

"Securing the population is not just us attacking the terrorist or their safe havens... It's also the people feeling secure by their government. And that's what the government of Iraq has to do," he said.

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