Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite group, has established a significant presence in Iraq, but is not taking part in attacks on US forces inside the country, according to current and former US officials and Arabs familiar with the organization.
Iran is believed to be restraining Hezbollah from attacking US troops, and that is prompting a debate within the Bush administration about Iran's objectives, administration officials said.
Hezbollah's presence has become a source of concern as it is recognized by counterterrorist experts to have some of the most dangerous operatives in the world.
Both US and Israeli intelligence have found evidence that Hezbollah operatives have established themselves in Iraq, according to current and former US officials.
Separately, Arabs in Lebanon and elsewhere who are familiar with the organization say Hezbollah has sent what they describe as a security team of up to 90 members to Iraq.
The organization has steered clear of attacks on Americans, the US officials and Arabs familiar with Hezbollah agree.
US intelligence officials said Hezbollah operatives were believed to have arrived in Iraq soon after the end of major combat operations last spring, and had refrained from attacks on Americans ever since.
The CIA had not seen a major influx of Hezbollah operatives since that time, officials added.
"Hezbollah has moved to establish a presence inside Iraq, but it isn't clear from the intelligence reports what their intent is," one administration official said.
powerful allies
Based in Lebanon, Hezbollah is a Shiite Islamic group that is under Tehran's control. Syria, which dominates Lebanon and controls Hezbollah's supply lines from Iran, also plays a powerful role with the group.
Inside Lebanon, Hezbollah has taken on an increasingly political role, but it continues to pose a global threat.
The US has issued a US$25 million reward for the capture of Imad Mugniyah, the longtime chief of foreign terrorist operations; he is believed to have been behind a series of attacks against Americans in the 1980s, including hostage-taking operations in Lebanon.
More recently, Hezbollah has focused its activities on Israel, and is not believed to have launched a large attack against US interests since 1996, when, according to US government charges, it carried out the bombing of the Khobar Towers barracks in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans.
In recent months, US troops have faced a deadly guerrilla campaign waged largely by the remnants of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party government in the Sunni-dominated region of central Iraq.
Some foreign Arab fighters are believed to have infiltrated Iraq, but their role in attacks on US troops now appears to be less significant than US military and intelligence officials originally believed.
US forces have faced far less violence in Shiite-dominated southern Iraq than they have in the Sunni heartland.
The Shiites, though the majority of Iraq's population, suffered severe oppression under the Sunni-dominated government of Saddam, and have so far appeared more willing to accept the US military occupation.
But Iran's role in Iraq's Shiite community has been a wild card for the Bush administration.
religious rivalry
Shiite-dominated Iran has a strong interest in influencing the political and religious direction of the country, particularly because some of the Shiite world's holiest sites are in the Iraqi cities of Karbala and Najaf.
Iran's powerful clerical leaders are deeply concerned about which clerics emerge as the dominant figures in those cities, US officials say.
"We are very aware of the rivalry between Iranian Shia and Iraqi Shia for dominance in that community," one administration official said.
"It's possible that Hezbollah is there to help the Iraqis politically, to work in the Shia community," and has no plans for terrorist attacks against Americans, the official added.
Another critical concern of the Iranians is the US policy toward the People's Mujahedeen, an anti-Iranian terrorist group that operated for years on the Iraqi side of the border under the protection of Saddam's government.
Since the US occupation of the country, the Bush administration has been deeply divided over how to handle this group.
Pentagon officials and conservatives inside and outside the administration have been open to the idea of using it against the Iranians, but State Department officials have argued that the group should be disarmed and rendered ineffective to improve relations with Iran.
Last spring, President George W. Bush ordered that US forces disarm the group, but some administration officials say the Pentagon has purposefully been lax in its treatment of the organization.
An administration official said last week that the US military has allowed some members of the People's Mujahedeen to enter and leave Iran, and that the group still has equipment for broadcasting its anti-government messages into Iran.
This month, in an interview with The Washington Post, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice tried to clarify the Bush administration's policy toward the anti-Iranian group by insisting that Washington is treating it as a terrorist group.
But the Iranians remain suspicious about US intentions, and some administration officials speculated that Tehran might be trying to use Hezbollah's presence in Iraq as a counterweight, to deter the Americans from unleashing the Mujahedeen against Iran.
US officials say they believe that Iran wants to resume the quiet dialogue with the US that has been suspended in recent months.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in