Was the Karbala Kidnapping a Cover to Steal a Military Laptop?
On January 20th, five GMC SUVs carrying English speaking gunman with American uniforms and weapons conducted “perhaps the boldest and most sophisticated attack in four years of warfare” (AP), abducting four US soldiers. Later the SUVs were found with the Americans executed inside.
Insurgencies certainly evolve, but this latest attack is light years beyond anything previously conducted. The operation required a nine to twelve English speaking fighters, five disposable SUVs (approx $200,000+), American uniforms, American firearms, and reliable intelligence on the exact location of the American targets. Furthermore, the logistics and planning the operation by any measure outweigh the strategic-value of abducting of 4 American, especially since the unknown gunman executed the US GIs only hours later. If the goal of attack was to kidnap the Americans, why did the attackers kill the US servicemen so soon? A logical answer is that kidnapping Americans was the not goal of the raid. So what was?
On January 27th, an Associated Press Report included a curious sentence in an overview of the attack:
"The attackers captured four soldiers and fled with them and the computer east toward Mahawil in Babil province, crossing the Euphrates River, the U.S. military officials said." (AP)
No mention of a computer appears anywhere else in the article, yet the article appears to have been written as if it was. While all the media outlets have been describing the attack as a kidnapping, the AP article hints at another possible reason for the raid, a military laptop. Elusive, well financed, supported, and trained attackers took four Americans and a laptop, within hours they killed the Americans. Was the computer the real target? Were the American soldiers kidnapped to provide the password and then killed?
The article does not mention if the computer was found in the car, but even if it was the data it contained could have been downloaded off the device. I do not presume to know what was on the computer but the fact that the attackers stole two things (GIs and a Computer) and killed the GIs lends to the possibility that the computer was the real reason for the attack.
AP Article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...8MTJD980.shtml
My Original Posting: http://chrisalbon.com/was-the-karbal...ilitary-laptop
Militants Responsible for Karbala Attack Captured
Quote:
The U.S. military said Thursday it had captured the leaders of a Shiite insurgent network responsible for one of the boldest and most sophisticated attacks on American troops since the Iraq conflict began four years ago.
The statement said the arrests took place over the past three days in the cities of Basra and Hillah south of Baghdad. The military said the network was led by Qais Khazaali and his brother Laith Khazaali. Several other members of the network also were captured.
The network was "directly connected" to the killing in January of five American soldiers in the holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, the military said.
...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260383,00.html
Captured Hezbollah agent helped plan deadly Karbala raid
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A top special operations officer from Lebanon's Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah has been captured in Iraq, where U.S. officials say he played a key role in a January attack that killed five Americans...
This could get interesting. The U.S. has, to a large extent, left Hezbollah alone. Are we seeing the emergence of a violent, trans-ethnic Shiite axis? If so, does that undercut our policy of supporting the existing government of Iraq?
Iran's Elite Force Is Said to Use Hezbollah as 'Proxy' in Iraq
3 July Washington Post - Iran's Elite Force Is Said to Use Hezbollah as 'Proxy' in Iraq by Joshua Partlow.
Quote:
An American general said on Monday that Iraqi Shiite militiamen are being trained by Iranian security forces in cooperation with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement, offering the most specific accusations to date of Iranian involvement in specific attacks against U.S. forces.
Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, a U.S. military spokesman, asserted that Iran's elite al-Quds Force, a wing of the Revolutionary Guard, was providing armor-piercing weapons to extremist groups in Iraq, funneling them up to $3 million a month and training Iraqi militiamen at three camps near Tehran...
U.S. Says Iran Helped Iraqis Kill Five G.I.’s
3 July NY Times - U.S. Says Iran Helped Iraqis Kill Five G.I.’s by John Burns and Michael Gordon.
Quote:
Agents of Iran helped plan a January raid in Shiite holy city of Karbala in Iraq in which five American soldiers were killed by Islamic militants, an American military spokesman said Monday. The charge was the most specific allegation of Iranian involvement in an attack that killed American troops, at a time of rising tensions with Iran over its role in Iraq and its nuclear program.
Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, the military spokesman here, said an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, a force under the control of Iran’s most powerful religious leaders, had used veterans of the Lebanese Islamic militia group Hezbollah as a “proxy” to train, arm and plan attacks by an array of Shiite militant cells in Iraq.
One high-ranking Hezbollah commander from Lebanon was captured in Basra in March, and after weeks of pretending that he could not hear or speak, he gave American interrogators details of the Iranian role, the general said...
Back to Karbala via a US lawyer in New Jersey
Started reading this article and a good chunk is about this incident, so thread re-opened.
The lawyer is pursuing HSBC, a UK bank with US subsidiaries, for its involvement in the funding of Iranian activity in Iraq.
Link:https://taskandpurpose.com/after-ira...ed-them-do-it/