Pentagon blasts Iran arms flow to Iraq

WASHINGTON, June 24 (UPI) -- A U.S. Department of Defense report on the status of its operations in Iraq blames Iran for arming radical Iraqi Shiite militias despite promises not to.

The quarterly Pentagon assessment of Iraq, released Monday, was generally upbeat, saying overall levels of violence there were at their lowest in four years but it blasted Iran's alleged involvement in shipping arms and advanced roadside bombs to Iraqi Shiite factions, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

It said the report criticized Iran for facilitating the "large-scale trafficking of arms, ammunition, and explosives" and helping to "fund, train, arm and guide numerous networks that conduct wide-scale insurgency operations."

The report mentioned the discovery of large caches in Basra of Iranian-made weapons, which allegedly were manufactured this year after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had obtained a promise from Iranian officials they would end the flow of arms into the country.

Syria also comes in for criticism in the report, the Journal said. In it, Syria is portrayed as "safe haven and transit point for the vast majority of foreign terrorist networks now operating in Iraq."