Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Ed Morrissey links to a Wall Street Journal article today which quotes military leaders in Baghdad as saying that a band of 50 or so Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops are being tracked inside the capitol city:

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, whose command includes the volatile southern rim of Baghdad and districts to the south, said his troops are tracking about 50 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps in their area — the first detailed allegation that Iranians have been training fighters within Iraq’s borders. "We know they’re here and we target them as well," he said, citing intelligence reports as evidence of their presence.

He declined to be more specific and said no Iranian forces have been arrested in his territory. "We’ve got about 50 of those," he said, referring to the Iranian forces. "They go back and forth. There’s a porous border." …

Gen. Lynch, whose mission is to block the flow of weapons and fighters into the Baghdad area, said Sunni and Shiite extremists have become increasingly aggressive this month, trying to influence the debate in Washington before a pivotal progress report on Iraq. He singled out the Shiite extremists as being behind rising attacks using armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, which he said were largely assembled in Iraq from parts smuggled in from Iran. He also noted a marked increase in Iranian-rockets that have been increasingly effective against U.S. bases.

There has been an overall decrease in attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces, as well as civilians, south of Baghdad, but 46% of those were being carried out by Shiite extremists, Gen. Lynch said. "The real difference now is we’ve got to spend as much time fighting the Shia extremists as Sunni extremists," he said.

And check out these quotes today in the WaPo:

The Gulf would become a "hell" for Iran’s enemies if they were to attack the Islamic Republic, a commander of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards was quoted as saying on Sunday.

It was the latest in a series of defiant statements from senior Guards figures after U.S. officials on Wednesday said the United States may soon name the force a terrorist group, a move that would enable Washington to target its finances.

"With the power the Guards have obtained now, if the enemies want to … start a military confrontation, the Persian Gulf will become a hell for them," Ali Razmjoo, a naval commander of the Revolutionary Guards, told the Fars News Agency.

"By using modern systems, no activities and threats by the enemies in the Persian Gulf would be hidden from us," he said.

And this one today in the AFP:

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sunday launched a new attack on the United States, saying Iran’s arch-enemy was "stuck in a whirlpool," and would sink deeper in the future. "America is weaker compared to 20 years ago, and it does not have its previous power and grandeur," Khamenei said in a speech to participants in a religious conference, state television said.

"America and its followers are stuck in a whirlpool, and they sink deeper as time passes. A dangerous future is predicted for them," he added.

Meanwhile we have been kicking more ass inside Iraq: (h/t Bill Roggio)

US and Iraqi forces continue the hunt for al Qaeda and Shia terror operatives. Fourteen al Qaeda operatives were captured during raids in Baghdad, Taji, Balad, Samarra and Mosul on August 16 and 17. Two al Qaeda operatives were killed and 16 captured during operations in Baghdad, Tarmiyah, Bayji, Tikrit, Kirkuk, and Mosul on August 18. The Bayji raid netted "an alleged weapons and logistics facilitator" while the Tikrit raid resulted in the capture of an "operative believed to move large amounts of explosives and foreign terrorists into Iraq." Three al Qaeda were killed and 21 captured during a series of raids in Muqdadiyah, Tarmiyah and in Salahadin province on August 19.

In Baghdad, Iraqi security forces captured a Mahdi Army sniper cell leader and weapons facilitator, along with a cell member, and killed another. In a separate raid, Iraqi troops captured a financial backer of al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq.

In Tarmiyah, which is about 25 miles north of Baghdad in Salahadin province, Coalition forces killed 13 al Qaeda operatives and captured 12 during a raid on August 17 designed to capture an "al Qaeda in Iraq cell leader who provides guidance to senior terrorist leaders." Coalition forces killed the 12 terrorists after a series of clashes in the city, and engaged them with sniper and close air support. Also in Tarmiyah, a U.S. helicopter crew targeted two insurgents on the roof of a mosque. Insurgents have been using the mosque to attack U.S. forces in the city since May. Iraqi soldiers also raided a mosque near Balad on August 18 after intelligence indicated it was being used to support the insurgency.