In Iraq, Mr. Khalaf was able to obtain intelligence on the ground that confirmed that Iran and Syria are assisting the insurgents for the sole aim to destroy the country. He confirmed that Iranian fighters captured in Iraq have admitted that the Iranian government is involved in their training and funding. Mr. Khalaf said that Iran is spending up to $90m a month on arming the insurgency in Iraq including Moqtada al-Sadr.
Mr. Khalaf also confirmed that 18 new charitable organizations have been set-up in the last year across Iraq, supported by Iran, that are imitating the same strategy used by of Hezbollah and Hamas; mainly, through funding of poor families and then attracting their youths to the armed struggle. He also confirmed that up to 300 Iranian agents are in Iraq as “reporters” but whose real jobs is to communicate back and forth between the Iranian regime and the charities that are funded by Iran.
Further to that, Mr. Khalaf confirmed that up to 1,870 apartments and homes have been used across Iraq to shelter the insurgents.
On the other hand, Syrias Baathists have been playing a logistics role by giving access to Hezbollah military people into Iraq across to communicate with the charities set-up by Iran. These hand-picked individuals are traveling from Lebanon into Iraq to train the insurgents in guerrilla fighting and rocket launching techniques. Furthermore, Syrias Baathists are also allowing Palestinian refugees to enter Iraq as fighters. Those fighters captured with Syrian accents come from the Palestinian camps in Syria and Lebanon.
Syria is also facilitating insurgencies from Saudi Arabia, Chechnya, Morocco, and even from Eastern Europe. Mr. Khalaf accused Syria of not only assisting insurgency in Iraq but also of harboring the largest contingency of terrorists and terrorist organizations in the world.
