Hezbollah training Shiite militants in Iraq – report
Washington, 1 July (IranVNC)—Members of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group trained Shiite militiamen at remote camps in southern Iraq until three months ago, at which point they crossed the border into Iran, AP reported today, citing two Iraqi Shiite lawmakers and a top army officer.
By: IranVNC
Published: Tuesday, July 01, 2008
20:10GMT—4:10PM/EST
IRAQ – HEZBOLLAH – IRAN – TRAINING
Washington, 1 July (IranVNC)—Members of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group trained Shiite militiamen at remote camps in southern Iraq until three months ago, at which point they crossed the border into Iran, AP reported today, citing two Iraqi Shiite lawmakers and a top army officer.
The three Iraqis, who spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity, said that Hezbollah began training militants in the second half of 2006 at two camps east of Basra, near the Iranian border. The instructors, who never numbered more than ten at any one time, moved back and forth across the Iranian border, the unnamed Iraqis said, adding that Iran prefers to use Hezbollah instructors because they are better able to communicate with the Iraqis in Arabic and can maintain a lower profile.
A Hezbollah spokesperson in Beirut did not comment on his organization’s role, and a US military spokesperson said in an e-mail to AP that they have no “new, releasable information regarding Hezbollah’s involvement in Iran and Iraq.”
The New York Times in May reported that Lebanon's Hezbollah has been training Iraqi militiamen at a camp near Tehran. The newspaper was quoting a US military interrogation report compiled after the interrogation of four Shiite militants captured in Iraq last year. It detailed efforts by Iran to be less obtrusive in the training of Shiite militants by bringing them back to camps in Iran in small groups. Upon completing their training, the militants would return to Iraq to teach their comrades.
The Iraqi government, which has said it does not want to get caught in a proxy war between Washington and Tehran, said in May that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had ordered the formation of a committee to collect evidence of Iranian “interference” in Iraq to present to Tehran.
But Iran denied in May US accusations that it supports, arms and trains Shiite militants in Iraq, or that it supports Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Sources: Associated Press, New York Times
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