| presenter: Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, U.S. Army, Commander, Multinational Corps Iraq | June 22, 2007 |
http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=3998
Q General, if I could just follow up on something you said to Pauline, you said the Iraqis might be ready in the fall; it might take a little longer; it might be the spring. So that kind of sets out a time frame, between the fall and the spring. Are you fairly confident that at least by spring, when many of your -- when your surge forces will begin to rotate out, that the Iraqis will in fact be able to bear the major burden of security in the country?
And can you give us a quick update on something you told us in April about supplies from Iran going to the Sunni side of the insurgency?
GEN. ODIERNO: ...In terms of Iranian support to Sunnis, we have seen some indications that there has been some Iranian support and weapons to some small Sunni groups, not widespread. And again, I think it's Iran's attempt to continue to destabilize Iraq and inflict as many casualties as they can, frankly, on U.S. forces who are operating in Iraq. But we have not seen any increase in that. What I have seen, though, is a steady increase in support to Shi'a extremists. I think they are trying to surge their support to Shi'a extremists. We've seen an increased flow of training to mortar teams and rocket teams, we've seen an increase in some flow of weapons and munitions into Iraq. We are working very hard to cut those lines every day from Iran.
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