2007年VOA标准英语-US Military Says Iranian Officer Under Arrest i

By Jim Randle
Baghdad
20 September 2007

The U.S. military says it has arrested an Iranian officer accused of smuggling¹ powerful roadside bombs into Iraq for Tehran's elite² Quds force. The military says the Iranian man was seized from a hotel in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. In Baghdad, Correspondent Jim Randle has this report.

The U.S. military says the Iranian officer was involved in bringing explosives into Iraq that were specially-designed to wreck³ American vehicles and kill U.S. soldiers.

"This individual has been involved in transporting improvised⁴ explosive devices and explosively-formed penetrators into Iraq," said Army Specialist Megan Burmeister.  "Intelligence reports also indicate he was involved in the infiltration⁵ and training of foreign terrorists in Iraq."

News reports say three Iranians were initially⁶ arrested, but two were later released.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the man arrested Thursday is the seventh Iranian Quds Force operative that U.S. forces have detained in Iraq. He said Tehran is ignoring repeated U.S. requests to stop such activities.

"I think it's a further reflection that they've not ceased these activities that we find troublesome and are inconsistent with being a good neighbor to Iraq," he said.

Iran has denied U.S. allegations that the Quds Force, of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, is helping⁷ arm Shi'ite militias⁸ in Iraq.

The detention⁹ of Iranians is a sensitive issue after last month's arrest of eight Iranian nationals in a central Baghdad hotel and a January arrest of five Iranians during a U.S. raid in the northern city of Irbil.

Iraq's government is backed by the United States but has good relations with its neighbor Iran.  Iraq has been trying to get Iran and the U.S. to cooperate in reducing violence in the country.

Earlier Thursday, the number two commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said violence in the country has fallen sharply and is still declining.

Lieutenant¹⁰ General Raymond Odierno said a seven-month-long surge of U.S. troops and a new strategy have cut attacks and deaths in Iraq.

"Attacks nationwide have fallen to the lowest level since before the golden mosque¹¹ bombing in February of 2006. Car bomb and suicide attacks have dropped to the lowest level in a year, but until we can stop all of them we will not be satisfied," he added.

The bombing of the major Shi'ite shrine¹² in Samarra sparked a wave of sectarian killings¹³ in many parts of the country.

Odierno said the decline in violence across Iraq is also seen in Baghdad. He said al-Qaida in Iraq is being pushed out of Baghdad and nearby areas, and some militants¹⁴ are even fleeing Iraq.

U.S. troops have been moving out of large bases into smaller combat outposts in Baghdad and in other areas.

The U.S. military says closer contact with Iraqis has yielded more tips and better information, boosting the number of weapons discovered and cutting the number of roadside bomb attacks on U.S. troops.

The latest assessment¹⁵ comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iraq's government, after 11 Iraqi civilians¹⁶ were killed when guards from the U.S. private security firm, Blackwater, opened fire in a busy Baghdad square on Sunday.

Blackwater says its guards acted in self-defense, but Iraqi eyewitness¹⁷ have disputed this.

U.S. and Iraqi authorities say they have set up a joint¹⁸ commission to investigate the deadly shoot-out.

1 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

2 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

3 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

4 improvised   

a.即席而作的,即兴的

参考例句：

• He improvised a song about the football team's victory. 他即席创作了一首足球队胜利之歌。
• We improvised a tent out of two blankets and some long poles. 我们用两条毛毯和几根长竿搭成一个临时帐蓬。

5 infiltration   

n.渗透；下渗；渗滤；入渗

参考例句：

• The police tried to prevent infiltration by drug traffickers. 警方尽力阻止毒品走私分子的潜入。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A loss in volume will occur if infiltration takes place. 如果发生了渗润作用，水量就会减少。 来自辞典例句

6 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

9 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

10 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

11 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。

12 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

13 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

14 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

15 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

16 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

17 eyewitness   

n.目击者，见证人

参考例句：

• The police questioned several eyewitness to the murder.警察询问了谋杀案的几位目击者。
• He was the only eyewitness of the robbery.他是那起抢劫案的唯一目击者。

18 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。