U.S. says seizes Iraqis linked to Iran Qods force

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces captured 12 Iraqis in Baghdad on Monday suspected of smuggling weapons from Iran, including one linked to Tehran's elite Qods force, the U.S. military said in a statement.

The suspects were involved in "production and distribution of deadly explosively formed penetrators", a particularly lethal form of roadside bomb.

"Those in custody are believed to be involved in smuggling and storing weapons from Iran used to attack Iraqi civilians and the security forces," the statement said.

One of them had links to the Qods force, part of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, it said.

U.S. officials say the explosively formed penetrators, which have claimed the lives of scores of U.S. soldiers, are being built in Iran and then smuggled into Iraq to be assembled there.

Iran has denied such charges and blames the 2003 U.S.-led Iraq invasion for the sectarian violence between majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni Arabs that has killed tens of thousands.

The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said last week that the flow of Iranian weapons into Iraq has increased.