Busted! Iranian Qods Force Commanders Linked To Taliban in Afghanistan

I hate to throw out a "told you so" but I do need to this time - I've been speaking of this for awhile and in fact, just had a conversation the other night on a radio program with the host about how I have conjectured that Iranian expertise is part of the higher troop deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan recently. Well, the news is out that the U.S. Treasury department has found that Iranian Qods Force commanders have a direct link to Taliban operations in Afghanistan.

From the story at The Long War Journal:

The US Treasury department has added four Iranian Qods Force commanders to its list of specially designated global terrorists, two of whom are charged with directly providing support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

General Hossein Musavi and Colonel Hasan Mortezavi, both senior officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps - Qods Force, were designated on Aug. 3 as terrorists under Executive Order 13224 for "for their roles in the IRGC-QF's support of terrorism" and for providing "financial and material support to the Taliban."

The Treasury department also designated Hushang Allahdad for aiding Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the Qods Force commander in Lebanon, for acting as a "liaison to Hezbollah and Syrian intelligence services" and well as "guaranteeing weapons shipments" to Hezbollah.

At what point is someone, ANYONE from the Obama administration going to stand up and take an aggressive position against the involvement of Iran in BOTH the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan? Now, understand - I hold George W. Bush responsible as well for the inaction against the Iranians but the fact of the matter is that there is tons of proof of Iranian actions leading to the deaths of our American troops in Iraq, and now, we have proof that the Iranians are now involved in Taliban operations in Afghanistan.

As if the Iranians illegally working undercover to develop nuclear weapons isn't enough for military action against this rogue nation, but the fact that Iran is responsible for American deaths on the battlefield should make them an instant declared enemy in a war. For crying out loud, American Marines and soldiers ARRESTED and DETAINED Qods Force commanders INSIDE OF IRAQ over the past few years!

Add onto all of that the fact that the Iranians were responsible for bringing the EFP technology for IED's into the Iraq War - this technology greatly increased the penetrating ability of IED's to get through the armor on U.S. vehicles and the deaths of our troops soared because of it.

And yet, not a single word from American leadership against Iran. I've fucking had it.

Iranian Qods Force commanders linked to Taliban: US Treasury


The US Treasury department has added four Iranian Qods Force commanders to its list of specially designated global terrorists, two of whom are charged with directly providing support for the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

General Hossein Musavi and Colonel Hasan Mortezavi, both senior officers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps - Qods Force, were designated on Aug. 3 as terrorists under Executive Order 13224 for "for their roles in the IRGC-QF's support of terrorism" and for providing "financial and material support to the Taliban."

The Treasury department also designated Hushang Allahdad for aiding Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the Qods Force commander in Lebanon, for acting as a "liaison to Hezbollah and Syrian intelligence services" and well as "guaranteeing weapons shipments" to Hezbollah.

The IRGC is tasked with defending the Islamic Revolution inside Iran while exporting the radical ideology to neighboring countries and worldwide. Qods Force is the IRGC's external special operations branch.

General Hossein Musavi is the commander Qods Force's Ansar Corps, "whose responsibilities include IRGC-QF activities in Afghanistan," the Treasury stated. "As Ansar Corps Commander, Musavi has provided financial and material support to the Taliban."

Colonel Hasan Mortezavi is described as a senior Qods Force officer who "provides financial and material support to the Taliban."

Qods Forces' Ansar Corps is the command that is assigned to direct operations in Afghanistan. The Ansar Corps is based in Mashad in northeastern Iran. Ansar Corps operates much like the Ramazan Corps, which supports and directs Shia terror groups in Iraq. [See LWJ report, Iran's Ramazan Corps and the ratlines into Iraq]

Al Qaeda is also known to facilitate travel for its operatives moving into Afghanistan from Mashad. Al Qaeda also uses the eastern cities of Tayyebat and Zahedan to move its operatives into Afghansitan. [See LWJ report, Return to Jihad]

Background on Iran's covert support for the Taliban

For years, ISAF has stated that Taliban fighters have conducted training inside Iran, with the aid of the Qods Force, the special operations branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. As recently as May 30, 2010, former ISAF commander General Stanley McChrystal said that Iran is training Taliban fighters and providing them with weapons.

"The training that we have seen occurs inside Iran with fighters moving inside Iran," McChrystal said at a press conference. "The weapons that we have received come from Iran into Afghanistan."

In March 2010, a Taliban commander admitted that Iran has been training teams of Taliban fighters in small unit tactics. "Our religions and our histories are different, but our target is the same — we both want to kill Americans," the commander told The Sunday Times, rebutting the common analysis that Shia Iran and Sunni al Qaeda could not cooperate due to ideological differences.

Background on known Taliban commanders who work with Iran's Qods Force

In recent years, the US military has targeted several Taliban commanders in western Afghanistan who are known to receive support from Qods Force.

On July 16, US and Afghan forces killed Mullah Akhtar, a Taliban commander in Farah province, and several of his fighters, during a raid on a training camp used by foreign fighters. Akhtar "had close ties with Taliban and al Qaeda senior leaders." ISAF stated in a press release. He "was responsible for arranging training for foreign fighters from Iran and helped resolve disputes between militant networks." Intelligence officials also told The Long War Journal that Akhtar was closely tied to Qods Force.

Mullah Mustafa is another Iranian-linked Taliban commander who operates in Ghor province. The US military said Mustafa commands more than 100 fighters and receives support from Iran's Qods Force. ISAF thought it killed Mustafa in a June 9, 2009, airstrike in a rural area in Ghor. Mustafa later spoke to the media and denied reports of his death.

Another Taliban commander who has worked closely with the Qods Force is Ghulam Yahya Akbari, a commander in Herat province. Akbari, who was known as the "Tajik Taliban," claimed to operate more than 20 bases in Herat and boasted of having more than 600 fighters under his command. He facilitated the movement of foreign fighters, or al Qaeda, from Iran into Afghanistan, and helped them transit to the battlefields in Helmand and Kandahar.

Akbari was killed in a special operations raid in Herat in October 2009. Samihullah, Akbari's replacement, has even closer ties to al Qaeda and continues to facilitate the movement of al Qaeda fighters from Iran to Afghanistan.

Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa, the former Taliban governor of Herat province who is currently in US custody at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, served as the Taliban's liaison to Iran prior to the fall of Mullah Omar's regime in late 2001.

Khairkhwa "was present at a clandestine meeting in October of 2001 between Taliban and Iranian officials in which Iran pledged to assist the Taliban in their war with the United States," according to documents from the US government’s unclassified files on Gitmo detainees. According to one document, he met with Hizb-i-Islami-Gulbuddin leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ayman al Zawahiri.

Hekmatyar, who runs one of the three largest Taliban-linked insurgent groups in Afghanistan, is closely linked to Iran. He was backed by the Iranians during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s, and sheltered inside Iran from 1996 to 2002, under the care of the IRGC.