Military: U.S. troops arrest Iranian agent in N Iraq

By Xinhua

Baghdad : The U.S. military said its troops arrested an officer from the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force in Iraq’s northern city of Sulaimaniyah on Thursday.


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“Contrary to recent diplomatic initiatives, this individual has been involved in transporting improvised explosive devices and explosively formed penetrators into Iraq,” the military said in a statement.

“Intelligence reports also indicate he was involved in the infiltration and training of foreign terrorists in Iraq,” said the statement.

Meanwhile, a spokesman from Iraq’s Kurdish regional government noted that U.S. troops detained an Iranian businessman who is visiting Iraq within a commercial delegation.

U.S. troops raided the Sulaimaniyah Palace Hotel in central part of Sulaimaniyah city at about 4 a.m. (0100 GMT) and detained Agha Farhadi who came within a commercial delegation from Iran, said the spokesman.

Late in August, U.S. troops had detained a seven-member Iranian delegation and their escorts in the Sheraton Hotel in central Baghdad, who were released the next day after interrogation.

On Jan. 11, U.S. troops arrested five Iranians in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil. The military said they were suspected of being closely tied to Iran’s elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants.

The Iranians denied any accusation that it was involved in violence of the war-torn neighboring Iraq.

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