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Safe houses in border towns in Iran for Arab fighters in Iraq are being run - perhaps - by elements of the Revolutionary Guards, operating independently from the Tehran central government. So Iraqi Kurds and US intelligence officials tell the Associated Press' Lois Meixler. Many of the Arab fighters, including from Yemen, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, are heading to Mosul:
... Kurds living in mountainous villages near the [Iran-Iraq] border who have traveled inside Iran to visit relatives said they have seen Arabs living in what appeared to be safe houses in the Iranian border town of Mariwan.
Former Ansar prisoners held by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan -- one of two Kurdish militias that control the north -- have backed up the claim as have PUK intelligence officials.
A U.S. official said Kurdish security forces found passports from Arab countries including Yemen, Egypt and Saudi Arabia buried under the dirt floor in one safe house on the Iranian side of the border.
"We are not just talking about Iranians passively dealing with al-Qaida," one former U.S. official who worked in Iraq said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are talking about al-Qaida at Revolutionary Guard bases and safe houses. This is active assistance."...
Update: Meanwhile, there are increasingly ominous rumblings on the Turkish-Iraqi border as well.