The Iranian connection

Bang

It's not just amped-up roadside bombs that Iran's been supplying to the insurgency. Shi'ite snipers have apparently also been receiving fancy Austrian-made sniper rifles, as well.

The guns were part of a shipment of 800 rifles that the Austrian company, Steyr-Mannlicher, exported legally to Iran last year.

The sale was condemned in Washington and London because officials were worried that the weapons would be used by insurgents against British and American troops.

Within 45 days of the first HS50 Steyr Mannlicher rifles arriving in Iran, an American officer in an armoured vehicle was shot dead by an Iraqi insurgent using the weapon.

Over the last six months American forces have found small caches of the £10,000 rifles but in the last 24 hours a raid in Baghdad brought the total to more than 100, US defence sources reported.

But CNN's Jack Cafferty thinks Iran's meddling is just fair play.