Last Friday, Bill Roggio questioned the attack in Karbala which ended up killing five U.S. soldiers after a dozen men disguised as American soldiers slipped past security.  Roggio wondered if the attack, a highly sophisticated attack beyond the normal procedures by terrorist groups in Iraq, was pulled off by the Iranian Quds force in response to the U.S. military arresting a Quds leader in northern Iraq.

I noted the Quds threat to take American soldiers hostage this past Monday, taking note the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a bit peeved at having a high-ranking figure in U.S. custody and losing key documents which point out the links between Iran and both Sunni and Shia terrorist groups in Iraq.  All of this was just an educated guess, but now the Pentagon is investigating whether or not Iran had a hand in the attack.

“People are looking at it seriously,” one of the officials said.

That official added the Iranian connection was a leading theory in the investigation into the January 20 attack that killed five soldiers.

The second official said: “We believe it’s possible the executors of the attack were Iranian or Iranian-trained.”

Both officials stressed the Iranian-involvement theory is a preliminary view, and there is no final conclusion. They agreed this possibility is being looked at because of the sophistication of the attack and the level of coordination.

“This was beyond what we have seen militias or foreign fighters do,” the second official said.

The New York Times also notes the investigation and gives more information from the Iraqi side after suggesting President Bush would be pleased Iran took part in the operation (apparently not analysis, just news according to the Times).

 An Iraqi knowledgeable about the investigation said four suspects had been detained and questioned. Based on those interviews, investigators have concluded that as they fled Karbala with the abducted Americans, the attackers used advanced devices to monitor police communications and avoid the roads where the police were searching.

The suspects have also told investigators that “a religious group in Najaf” was involved in the operation, the Iraqi said, in a clear reference to the Mahdi Army, the militia controlled by the breakaway Shiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr. If that information holds up, it would dovetail with assertions by several Iraqi officials that Iran is financing and training a small number of splinter groups from the Mahdi Army to carry out special operations and assassinations.

“I hear that there are a number of commando and assassination squads that are disconnected and controlled directly by Iran,” the senior Iraqi official said, citing information directly from the prime minister’s office. “They have supplied JAM and others with significant weaponry and training,” he said using shorthand for the group, from its name in Arabic, Jaish al Mahdi.

Since it is the Times, the ‘newspaper of record’ is quick to tote the line that JAM might have been pushed towards Iran by the United States, so in essense, four executed U.S. soldiers at the hands of an Iranian outfit is simply America’s fault.  Unbelievable trail of posturing by the Times.

Cutting through the political nonsense the Times passes off, this story only adds to the ever-growing reporting that Iran is fomenting unrest in Iraq both directly and indirectly.  In theory, it doesn’t really matter if Iran had a part in the Karbala attack, for the nation is already known to have participated at least indirectly in several other attacks.  Just how much more Iranian meddling the Coalition will take is anyone’s guess at this moment, but it seems to me Iran could fire missiles into Iraq from Tehran and nothing would happen.