Iranians backed Iraqi cell that killed 5 US soldiers: US general

General David Petraeus, however, said there was no concrete evidence that the Iranians were directly involved in the January 20 raid on a security compound by men dressed in US-style military uniforms.

"There is no question that the Al-Qazhali network was connected to the Iranian Qods Force -- received money, training, arms, ammunition, and at some points in time even advice and assistance," Petraeus said.

Petraeus said the evidence of Qods Force involvement emerged in interrogations of the network's captured leader and other cell members rolled up in subsequent raids over the past month.

"We discovered a 22 page memorandum on a computer that detailed the planning, preparation, approval process and conduct of the operation that resulted in five of our soldiers being killed in Karbala," he said.

"There are numerous documents which detail a number of different attacks on coalition forces, and our sense is that these records were kept so that they could be handed in to whoever was financing them," he said.

"No question, again, that financing is taking place through the Qods Force of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps," he said.

The January 20 was a strikingly bold operation in which gunmen dressed like American troops riding in SUVs penetrated Iraqi security at a provincial coordination center in Karbala.

They killed a US soldier in the initial assault, and abducted four others who were later found shot to death execution-style.

The sophistication of the operation immediately aroused US suspicions of Iranian involvement.

But Petraeus said, "We do not have a direct link of Iranian involvement in that particular operation."

He charged that the Qods Force was training members of Iraqi extremist cells on Iranian territory, and providing them with small arms and technology to make explosively-shaped charges that can penetrate armor.

Seven Qods Force members have been detained in Iraq, he said.

He said the chain of official Iranian involvement could be traced only as far as the commander of the Qods Force, who reports to the top Iranian leadership.

Petraeus's charges were the latest in a series by senior US officials pointing to Iranian efforts to destabilize Iraq.

He said there was no evidence at this point of Iranian involvement in the spectacular car bombings and suicide attacks that have rocked Baghdad despite a surge in US forces there.

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