Troops died after, not in, sneak attack 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Contrary to public statements by the U.S. military, four U.S. soldiers did not die repelling a sneak attack at the governor's office in the Shiite holy city of Karbala last week. New information obtained by The Associated Press shows they were abducted and found dead or dying as far as 25 miles away.

The brazen assault, 50 miles south of Baghdad on Jan. 20, was conducted by nine to 12 militants posing as an American security team. They traveled in black GMC Suburban vehicles - the type used by U.S. government convoys - had American weapons, wore new U.S. military combat fatigues and spoke English.

In a written statement, the U.S. command reported at the time that five soldiers were killed while "repelling the attack." Now, two senior U.S. military officials as well as Iraqi officials say four of the five were captured and taken from the governor's compound alive. Three of them were found dead and one mortally wounded later that evening in locations as far as 25 miles east of the governor's office.

Report: Karbala ambushers kidnapped
U.S. troops, killed them miles away
Allahpundit

We’ll probably be spared a beheading video or a Tucker/Menchaca mutilation montage here, but only because the cavalry was in hot pursuit.

[...]

Didn’t the Iraqi guards at the checkpoints notice that all the “Americans” in the GMCs were Arabs? Probably — but they might have been instructed to let them through anyway. My pal Zeyad, blogging at Iraqslogger, is following the Iraqi media coverage on this and says the leading theory is that it’s an inside job. ...

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2007.01.26.12:22

Kerbala attack: Iranian fingerprints? 
Bryan Preston

If Iranian agents are behind the murder of US soldiers in Kerbala, some things ought to explode on the Iranian side of the border. Bill Roggio has been checking with intel sources:

The American Forces Information Service provides the details of the attack in Karbala. Based on the sophisticated nature of the raid, as well as the response, or cryptic non-responses, from multiple military and intelligence sources, this raid appears to have been directed and executed by the Qods Force branch of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps. My sources agreed this is far too sophisticated an operation for the Mahdi Army or Badr Corps, while al-Qaeda in Iraq would have a difficult time mounting such an operation in the Shia south. “The Karbala Government Center raid the other day was a little too professional for JAM [Jaish al-Mahdi, or the Mahdi Army],” according to a military source.

This raid required specific intelligence, in depth training for the agents to pass as American troops, resources to provide for weapons, vehicles, uniforms, identification, radios and other items needed to successfully carry out the mission. Hezbollah’s Imad Mugniyah executed a similar attack against Israeli forces on the Lebanese border, which initiated the Hezbollah-Israeli war during the summer of 2006.

Hezbollah=Iran. Iran has been sheltering Mugniyah for a long time. ...

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Michelle has more here.