The above article is highly noteworthy in its reportage that Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi may have intelligence–and possibly operational–ties to Iranian intelligence officials, as well as in detailing an additional avenue of Iranian influence in the politics and violent insurgency of Iraq to those covered in previous WAR Reports on the subject.

As this article notes, Jordanian intelligence officials believe that Zarqawi slipped into Iran at various times following the US-led war against al Qaeda (Group Profile) and Taliban (Group Profile) elements in Afghanistan in 2001, and was supposedly ?arrested? and ?captured? by Iranian authorities, during which time it is thought that Zarqawi liaised with a ?high-ranking Iranian intelligence official? who ?encouraged [Zarqawi] to organize violent resistance to the American occupation of Iraq.? It is unclear what, if any, direct operational or material support Zarqawi?s Tawhid and Jihad (Group Profile) has since received from Iran.