On Sunday, Jan. 27, in an interview with CNN, General Petraeus answered questions about Iran’s meddling in Iraq. Replying to a question whether Iran has stopped shipping weaponry into Iraq, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus Said: “we’re not sure. We are obviously watching that very keenly. We have seen certain types of attacks with weaponry that we know has come in from Iran. The very large-caliber rockets, some advanced air defense missiles, man portable, the advanced rocket- propelled grenades and explosively formed projectiles, these very lethal improvised explosive devices. All of those have come down, although there was an increase in the EFPs in the first week and a half or two weeks of this month, but it subsequently went back down to the reduced levels. So, we’re watching this very carefully, frankly. We are trying to interdict it, as you would imagine. We’re looking very hard for it.

”We do believe — and we have detained individuals that have given us this information — that training has certainly continued, that the Quds Force-supported special groups, as they’re called, a militia extremist breakoff from the Sadr militia, that that training has continued, certainly up until the October-November time frame.

The concerns of everyone, including the senior leaders in the government of Iraq, have to do with the so-called lethal accelerants that Iran has provided to Iraq in the past. The training, the equipping, the funding and even the directing of particularly the militia special groups that have been highly trained in certain types of improvised explosive devices and other advanced weaponry. That’s an enormous concern, not just to us but to the Iraqi leaders. They have expressed that at the highest levels, and the highest levels of Iranian leadership have assured them that it would stop.”