Meanwhile, the U.S. military is claiming it has arrested 13 arms smugglers in Baghdad allegedly linked to Iran. In a statement, the military said it carried out a raid in Sadr City to “capture or kill highly-sought weapons facilitators with connections to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps — Quds Force in Iran.” Last week the McClatchy newspapers reported Vice President Dick Cheney has urged President Bush to directly confront Iran by launching airstrikes at suspected Iranian training camps inside Iraq. Local residents in Sadr City described the U.S. raid.

Abu Rasoul: “They tied our hands and made us stand against the wall and gave each of us a number written on our shoulders, and after that they entered the house and searched it thoroughly. They took away with them one million Iraqi dinars and 755,000 dinars. They arrested three of our sons and one of my nephews whose father is dead and my brother and his son.”