US-led coalition forces arrested a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard on Thursday in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymanyah, the US military said, according to dpa. A military statement said the man has been involved in "transporting improvised explosive devices," and helping "foreign terrorists" enter Iraq as well as training them. The Iranian is a member of al-Quds Force, which is part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, according to the statement. It is not clear whether the arrest is linked to an earlier detention by US troops of two Iranians in Sulaymanyah. Earlier reports said US forces stormed a hotel in the city on Thursday and arrested two Iranians who were part of a visiting commercial delegation. A US force drove to the Sulaymanyah Palace hotel in civilian vehicles at dawn and arrested two members of an Iranian commercial delegation, the chief of the security department in Sulaymanyah, Saif al-Din Ahmad, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Saif said the US force was made up of 20 men. The Iranian delegation was visiting the city at the invitation of its governor, he said. The authorities of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, where the city is located, was not aware of the US operation, according to Saif. The US military has not released any information about the arrests. The US accuses Iran of meddling in Iraq's affairs and supporting insurgents. Some Iraqi political blocs, especially Shiite religious parties, are said to have links to Iran.
