Iraqi police have captured three Iranian-backed Special Groups operatives behind the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers at the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center in January 2007. Meanwhile, US troops captured another Special Groups leader in the Al Kut region,
The Iraqi police captured the three "key criminals" behind the 2007 Karbala attack in Musayyib, just south of Baghdad, on June 5. The three Special Groups operatives are "suspected of trafficking and emplacing explosively formed projectiles." Explosively formed projectiles are the signature weapon of Shia terrorists with links to Iran.
The US military immediately suspected Iran's Qods Force, the elite external operations branch, of being behind the 2007 attack in Karbala. The raid was well planned and executed, as the attackers looked American, spoke English, used American equipment. One US soldier was killed and three wounded during the initial attack, and four soldiers were subsequently taken hostage. They were executed shortly afterward after Iraqi police and Coalition forces tracked their movement eastward towards Iran and went into pursuit. US satellite imagery specialists found a
mockup of the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center at an Iranian base in southern Iran.
The US military gained insight on the Karbala attack and Iran's involvement in operations in Baghdad and the South after stepping up pressure on the Iranian networks in late 2006 and throughout 2007. The US military killed or captured multiple high-level Iranian-trained agents and a Qods Force leader of one of the three sub-commands commands inside Iraq.

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