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"Iran is very directly supporting extremist Shiia groups, which are killing our troops," Adm. Michael Mullen said during a lunch with Pentagon reporters.

Mullen said the flow of weapons from Iran is done with the knowledge of Tehran's top leadership, but he stopped short of saying whether they were encouraging it.

"They know about it," Mullen said of Iran's top leadership.

There are 46,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now, and under an agreement with the United States all of the troops are to depart by the end of this year. But some observers say the U.S. should maintain a military presence in the country to prevent Iran from ruining a democratic Iraq that arose following the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime at a cost of 4,471 U.S. troops.

Iraq Gen. Babaker Shawkat Zebari has said Iraqi security forces will not be ready to handle the country's security needs for another several years, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has pushed for the maintenance of a long-term U.S. presence. Leading Democrats such as Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., oppose the idea.

The Pentagon has accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of supplying weapons to Shiite militias fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces. Iranian involvement in Iraq has ebbed and flowed over the years, according to the Pentagon.

The Pentagon has said Iran is linked to armor-piercing roadside bombs and improvised rocket-assisted mortars, sophisticated weapons systems that can give the militants a deadly edge over their adversaries.

The increase in Iranian weapons may be behind a recent spike in violence in Iraq. Fifteen U.S. troops died in Iraq in June, making it the deadliest month in Iraq for U.S. troops in two years. Terror bombings against Iraqi civilians have also been on the rise.

On Thursday, two U.S. soldiers were killed outside the main military base in Baghdad. The Associated Press, citing two unnamed military officials, said they were killed by the type of armor-piercing bomb that has been linked to Iran. Iran has denied supporting terror attacks in Iraq.

A largely Shiite country, Iran has supported Shiite militias that have fought both U.S. forces and the Iraqi government.

Shiites are a majority in Iraq but, until the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Saddam Hussein ensured that Sunnis dominated his dictatorship.

Iranian support for the militias in Iraq seemed to taper off toward the end of 2007, as overall violence declined, according to military statistics.

"We're now seeing it increase," Mullen said.

U.S. and Iraqi officials are currently negotiating the possibility of a U.S. military presence beyond the end of this year.

Mullen said the latest spike in involvement suggests that Iran might want to falsely claim credit for driving the United States from Iraq.

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And some say Iranian influence is showing up more and more in attacks on troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“You can clearly see what they are doing in Iraq,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

But the number two U.S. military commander in Afghanistan would not say publicly that the amount of Iranian weapons in Afghanistan was spiking.

“That level is just about the normal level of arms and ammunition that crosses borders in this volatile region each year, said Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, Commander of International Security Assistance Joint Force Command. “And they... have not increased significantly in the past two years."

One telling example of the weapons flow from Iran to Afghanistan happened in February, when British troops intercepted a large shipment of 122 millimeter rockets coming produced in Iran. The rockets have a range of about 13 miles, twice the range of what the Taliban was previously using.

Despite Rodriguez’s claims of an insignificant increase, behind closed doors U.S. commanders told a different story to visiting senators on a recent trip to Afghanistan.

“I did receive information that weapons were coming out of Iran to help the Taliban at a crucial moment in Afghanistan,” Graham said.

As the resident hurries to bring 33,000 troops home from Afghanistan in the next year, in Iraq the Obama administration is indicating it would like to leave 10-thousand troops in place, despite the current agreement which calls for all forces to leave by the end of the year. Right now there are 46,000 troops in Iraq.

But so far Iraq's Prime Minister has not made any request. And Wednesday, he was busy meeting the Iranians.

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No doubt Iran is a major contributor to regional instability, but what to do?  No one wants a new war.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:
No doubt Iran is a major contributor to regional instability, but what to do?  No one wants a new war.

i know, just...sucks.