"We've got a major problem with Iranian munitions streaming into Iraq," Major General Rick Lynch, the commander of US army forces in central Iraq, told the Journal.
"This Iranian interference is troubling and we have to stop it."
The base, with living quarters for some 200 soldiers, will be built six kilometers (four miles) from the Iranian border and will likely be completed by November, Major Toby Logsdon, the US officer overseeing the project, told the Journal, without giving a location.
The US military also plans to install X-ray machines and explosives-detecting sensors at the Zurbatiya border crossing, the main crossing between Iran and Iraq.(Source)
Early yesterday a Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Withington, said he could not comment on the specifics of the report, but said: "Coalition and Iraqi partners will continue to put pressure on the enemy, including disruptions of any supply lines, in an effort to reduce violence and to protect the Iraqi people."
General Petraeus, this morning, accused Iran of seeking to fight a "proxy war" with the Iraqi state and coalition forces by supporting Iraqi Shi'ite militants.
U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, warned that Iran would step into the vacuum if U.S. forces leave Iraq prematurely, echoing Iran's own statements not long ago.
From the WSJ:
Iran denies supplying weapons to Iraqi militants, but the accusation is at the center of escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran that have sparked talk of a possible American military strike on Iran.
"We've got a major problem with Iranian munitions streaming into Iraq," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. "This Iranian interference is troubling and we have to stop it."
The best way to stop Iranian interference and the flow of weapons as well as fighters from coming into Iraq and killing our soldiers is to stop them before they come into the country.
More as it comes out....
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