Iran backed Shi'ite group accused in attack - U.S.

WASHINGTON - (Reuters) - A Shi'ite militant group accused of killing five U.S. soldiers in Iraq has received money, training and arms from Iran, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said on Thursday.

But Gen. David Petraeus stopped short of saying the January attack in the holy city of Kerbala was directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Qods Force, which the U.S. military has accused of supplying armor-piercing roadside bombs and other weapons to Shi'ite militants in Iraq.

"We did not find, if you will, a direct fingerprint," Petraeus told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.

But he said the U.S. military has no doubt that the Shi'ite group "is directly connected to the Iranian Qods Force: received money, training, arms, ammunition and at some points in time even advice and assistance and direction."

Petraeus said documents captured from members of the Shi'ite group led by Iraqi Qais Khazaali, a senior aide to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, contained records of attacks on coalition forces that could be used to justify claims for financial payments from sponsors.

"Our sense is that these records were kept so that they could be handed in to whoever it is that is financing them. And there's no question, again, that Iranian financing is taking place through the Qods Force," he said.

SOPHISTICATED, WELL-REHEARSED ATTACK

U.S. forces announced in March the capture of Khazaali, his brother, Laith Khazaali, and other members of the groups in connection with the January attack.

Qais Khazaali is a former spokesman for Sadr and more recently a senior aide to the cleric.

In the Jan. 20 attack, four of the U.S. soldiers were abducted from an Iraqi local government compound in what the U.S. military described as a sophisticated, well-rehearsed attack. Five Americans died in all.

The attackers spoke English, wore American-looking uniforms and carried U.S.-type weapons. They passed through Iraqi checkpoints to reach the provincial compound.

Petraeus said details of the planning, preparation, approval process and conduct of the attack were contained in a 22-page memorandum discovered on a computer captured with members of the Khazaali group.

"There are numerous document(s) which detailed a number of different attacks on coalition forces," he said.

A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was not safe to simply assume Iranian involvement in the attack as the Khazaali group appeared to have operated independently sometimes.

"They have two different agendas -- one agenda is working for the Iranians, one agenda is working for themselves," said the official.