Trained to kill Our Boys

Tom Newton Dunn, The Sun:

Elite troops from Iran were last night accused of training Iraqi bombers to kill British soldiers. Insurgents are being taught to kill in special camps run by fanatics from the country’s Revolutionary Guard. They then slip back over the border to attack Our Boys in southern Iraq — and pass on bombing techniques to DOZENS of other extremists.

Eight British soldiers have already been killed by new-style roadside devices traced to Iran.

The first victim was Anthony Wakefield, 24, who died on patrol with the Coldstream Guards on May 2.

Defence sources told The Sun last night: “There is evidence the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is running training packages for insurgents.

“They are in the form of ‘train the trainer’. Up to ten people at a time are being taught how to make these new devices. They return to Iraq and pass it on to another 50.”

The Iranians’ efforts are part of a Middle East-wide network of terror identified by Western intelligence bosses.

Terrorists facing British troops in Basra are also thought to be receiving help from camps in Lebanon and Syria.

The revelation of help from Iranian troops is bound to reignite the already furious row between London and Tehran over the recent bombings.

The new armour-piercing bombs from Iraq have the power of THREE ordinary landmines and are detonated through infrared.

Renegades from the outlawed Mehdi army of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are suspected of carrying out the attacks.

But British troops have made a crucial breakthrough, it also emerged yesterday.

Two of the infrared detonators have been discovered intact, which could help untangle the supply chain.

A military source in Basra said: “It’s the first time we have found one of these things whole, rather than just in fragments after an explosion. READ MORE

“One was attached to a charge on a hidden device on a main road.”

A massive cache of explosives has also been discovered, made up of 50 rockets, ten mortar bombs and 64 landmines.

The find followed a dramatic arrest operation in Basra last week when troops held 12 suspected insurgents, including three crooked cops.