U.S. Navy Lt. Brian Ross, with Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 1, shows Iraqi soldiers assigned to an Iraqi army bomb disposal company how to inspect a hook and line kit in Tikrit, Iraq, on Nov. 26, 2008. DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Joan E. Kretschmer, U.S. Navy. (Released)General: Iran Backs Off Lethal EFP Bomb In Iraq
-- Yahoo News/AP
-- Yahoo News/AP
WASHINGTON – Iran is no longer actively supplying Iraqi militias with a particularly lethal kind of roadside bomb, a decision that suggests a strategic shift by the Iranian leadership, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said Thursday. Use of the armor-piercing explosives — known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs — has dwindled sharply in recent months, said Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, head of the Pentagon office created to counter roadside bombs in Iran and Afghanistan.
Metz estimated that U.S. forces find between 12 and 20 of the devices in Iraq each month, down from 60 to 80 earlier this year.
"Someone ... has made the decision to bring them down," Metz told reporters.
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Iran Seen Reining In Actions In Iraq - Officials
-- Reuters Alert
-- Reuters Alert
WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Iran has made a conscious effort to restrain Iraqi Shi'ite militias from attacking U.S. and Iraqi forces in recent months, U.S. and Iraqi officials said on Thursday.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, who oversees a Pentagon program to combat roadside attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Shi'ite use of munitions known as as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, has dropped to as few as 20 incidents per month, from as high as 80 per month, within the past 90 days.
Metz told Pentagon reporters the data suggest the elite Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards has made a conscious decision to rein in EFP use among Shi'ite militia.
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