Five Iranians arrested in northern Iraq last week were connected to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents in Iraq, the US military said on Sunday. The five were detained by US-led forces on Thursday in a raid on an Iranian government liaison office in Irbil, a city in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq 217 miles north of Baghdad.“Preliminary results revealed the five detainees are connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Qods Force (IRGC-QF), an organisation known for providing funds, weapons, improvised explosive device technology and training to extremist groups attempting to destabilise the government of Iraq and attack coalition forces,” the US military said in a statement.“Qods” is the Arabic name for Jerusalem, and a frequent name for political or military factions across the Muslim world.Tehran denied the five detained Iranians had been involved in financing and arming insurgents in Iraq.“Their job was basically consular, official and in the framework of regulations,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on Sunday during his weekly media briefing. “What Americans express was incorrect and hyperbole against Iran in order to justify their acts.”Hosseini said the Iranian representative office where the five men worked was established in Irbil in 1992 to facilitate the visit of Kurdish businessmen and medical patients from Iraq to Iran.“Then, both countries agreed to promote it to consular level,” he said. “Agreement for formation of the Iranian consulate section was exchanged in the current (Iranian) year.”The United States accuses Iran of helping to provide roadside bombs that have killed American troops in Iraq, and a bitter standoff already exists between the two countries over Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran has rejected the allegations.Hosseini accused the United States of resorting to “hostility and conflict toward neighbours of Iraq” because he said the country did not want to acknowledge it had failed to bring stability to Iraq.“The United States should release all the five persons, prevent possible similar acts and compensate damages,” Hosseini said.Two days after the raid, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said President Bush approved the strategy of raiding Iranian targets in Iraq as part of a broad effort to confront Tehran.-LAUREN FRAYER
