AAM: Much more on the exclusive


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KIRAN CHETRY: A CNN exclusive this morning. Evidence that Iran is arming and training Shiite militias fighting American troops in Iraq. The military this morning confirmed a CNN report on the involvement of Iran's elite Quds Force and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah from Lebanon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. KEVIN J. BERGNER, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Quds Force, along with Hezbollah instructors, train approximately 20 to 60 Iraqis at a time, sending them back to Iraq organized into these "special groups." They're being taught how to use EFPs, mortars, rockets, as well as intelligence, sniper and kidnapping operations.

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CHETRY: CNN's Michael Ware broke this story and he is with us from Baghdad with exclusive details on it.

Michael, how does the U.S. know that Hezbollah is involved?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kiran.

Yes, the U.S. military knows that Hezbollah is involved in Iraq principally through the arrest of one of Hezbollah's own Lebanese top special operations commanders here in this country. He was caught with the Iraqi commanders who'd planned and executed the attempt to kidnap five American soldiers, which unfortunately ended in the execution of those poor G.I.s.

Now, once they got this guy, they didn't know they had him for weeks. He played a deaf mute, not wanting to give away his Lebanese accent. Eventually, some of the Iraqis started to roll on him. They started to identify him. Finally he confessed.

Then the Americans went off using electronic intelligence -- that's intercepting communications. They got other corroborating material. As the general this morning said, we know it's him. This is a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative.

Kiran.

CHETRY: And the question also, why would the Quds Force depend on Hezbollah in Iraq when they, as we've seen before with being able to cross over the border quite easily, could do it themselves?

WARE: Well, there's a number of reasons for this, Kiran. I mean, this is an extraordinarily glimpse that we were able to obtain into the proxy war, one of the four wars being fought here in Iraq. This is the war between America and Iran. And Iran is fighting it with proxies, precisely like Lebanese Hezbollah, this advisor.

Now it's long been established that Iran is funding, training, and equipping Shia militia forces both involved in the government and on the streets who are attacking U.S. forces to serve Iranian interests. Now the reason they use a Lebanese Hezbollah as a guy to go in there and get his hands dirty, is that this protects the Iranian officers. We saw seven of them arrested over Christmas here in Iraq.

That was a bit bruising to the Iranians. So they like to use others to do the work so they can maintain plausible deniability. Don't forget, Iranians are Persians. They speak Farsi. Lebanese Hezbollah, that's Arab. So this guy was able to mix in much better and still give the Iranians room to deny his existence if ever he was killed or captured, just like this.

Kiran.

CHETRY: You know, it will be interesting to see your reporting on this and what the implications now are for about a broader war with Iran or whether or not the war on terror would end up heading in that direction given this news.

WARE: Yes. Well, I mean, it's the scary thing, that what triggered last summer's war in Lebanon, between Lebanese Hezbollah and the Israeli defense force, is the kidnap of Israeli soldiers. Now this is precisely what this Lebanese Hezbollah guy came to Iraq with, a specialist skilled in kidnapping soldiers. So it could trigger anything.

Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes, it really -- the implications seem like they are very vast.

Great reporting. CNN's Michael Ware breaking this story from Baghdad. Thank you.


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KIRAN CHETRY: First, though, we have a CNN exclusive out of Iraq. The U.S. military says a Hezbollah operative captured in Iraq revealing how Iran is arming and training Iraqi Shiite militias fighting American troops. And the military this morning confirming a CNN report of the involvement of Iran's elite Quds Force.

CNN's Michael Ware is the one to break this story. He's with us from Baghdad with exclusive details.

And they are saying that -- at least the U.S. military is saying that senior Iranian officials are aware and have been aware that this was taking place.

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kiran. You're right on the money there.

Indeed, if you understand the formation of this Iranian special forces unit known as the Quds Force, these are not ill-disciplined ragtag militia. This is like saying America's Delta Force acts without the orders of the U.S. military or the U.S. president.

Now, we know that that's their chain of command, but that hasn't been enough. What the U.S. military is now saying is that we know for a fact that the senior Iranian leadership knows what the Quds Force are doing in Iraq, trying to kill American and British forces. In fact, killing American and British forces.

And as the American general, the spokesman here in Baghdad, went further and said, it's impossible that right at the top of the tree, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would not know. So responsibility goes right to the top of the regime in Iran -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. So what's in it for Hezbollah?

WARE: Well, that's one of the great mysteries in this story. Now, certainly U.S. intelligence speculates that given that Iran and particularly this same unit, the Quds Force, are the principal sponsors of Hezbollah to the tune of tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year, then Hezbollah is indebted to the Iranians. And when the Iranians need assistance, Hezbollah must give it. They even suspect that Hezbollah might not be happy about it -- Kiran.

CHETRY: And Michael, what about the broader implications for Iran's involvement in directly fighting, if this is the case, U.S. troops?

WARE: Well, Iran is very savvy here. Yes, it has operatives in the country, actual Quds Force officers. But they've learned a very savvy trick.

If they travel on a diplomatic passport, even if they are detained, pressures come to bear from within the Iraqi government, a so-called American ally, and they are allowed to return pretty rapidly after their detention. So to do the dirty work, they use proxies, guys who can be sacrificed. That's why this Lebanese Hezbollah commander, a special operations officer himself trained by the Quds, according to the U.S. military, was sent by Hezbollah to Iran, where he spent a year training Iraqis to go back home and kill Americans and then he himself was asked by the Iranians to come here and lead the way -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Michael Ware reporting from Baghdad an exclusive report about the Hezbollah training the Shiite militants.

Thank you.


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JOHN ROBERTS: Now a CNN exclusive out of Iraq.

The U.S. military says a Hezbollah operative, Ali Mussa Daqduq, captured in Iraq, is revealing how Iran is arming and training Iraqi Shiite militias fighting American troops.

CNN's Michael Ware broke this story, and he has exclusive details for us now from Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. military in Iraq has arrested a senior Lebanese Hezbollah special operations commander inside Iraq and uncovered fresh evidence, perhaps its most compelling yet, of the involvement of Iranian armed forces inside Iraq, operations which the U.S. military says the Lebanese Hezbollah commander, an experienced guerrilla fighter with particular expertise in explosives, urban combat and kidnapping, was sent to Iraq to help Shia paramilitaries conduct against U.S. and British forces.

According to the U.S. military, that Lebanese commander and the Iraqi counterparts he had been training and guiding have all confessed under interrogation to their part in the attempt to kidnap five American soldiers in January this year in the southern city of Karbala, an attempt which ended in the execution of those troops. The military says documents and other evidence seized with the prisoners provide an extraordinary insight into the massive military program that Iran is running here in Iraq, assisting Shia paramilitaries.

BRIG. GEN. KEVIN J. BERGNER, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: Quds Force, along with Hezbollah instructors, train approximately 20 to 60 Iraqis at a time, sending them back to Iraq, organized into these "special groups." They're being taught how to use EFPs, mortars, rockets, as well as intelligence, sniper and kidnapping operations.

WARE: Indeed, General Bergner, in Baghdad, said that responsibility for this goes all the way to the senior leadership of Iran, adding that it is almost impossible that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself, does not know about the Quds Forces' involvement in Iraq.

Michael Ware, CNN, Baghdad.