We need a Qods Organization tab?By early 2007, some US intelligence estimates held that as many as 150 Iranian operatives were in Iraq. Many were member of the Quds Force, the covert arm of Iran's Shi'ite theocracy. Their mission was to coordinate the violent campaign being waged against US forces by Iraq's Shi'ite militias.
"It was 100 percent, ‘Are you willing to kill Americans and are you willing to coordinate attacks?' " said an officer who studied the Quds Force's approach closely. " ‘If the answer is "yes," here's arms, here's money.' "
The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) set up a new task force, named Task Force 17.
Its mandate was simple: go after "anything that Iran is doing to aid in the destabilization of Iraq," said a Task Force 17 officer. But political restrictions hobbled Task Force 17, particularly as the US lowered its profile in Iraq. The country's Shi'ite-dominated government, headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, wasn't happy with any attacks that targeted Iran operatives or their Iraqi proxies.
But for a small number of Shi'ite targets, JSOC found a way around the political restrictions by killing its enemies without leaving any US fingerprints.
The command did this using a device called the "Xbox."
Developed jointly by Delta Force and SEAL Team 6, the Xbox was a bomb designed to look and behave exactly like one made by Iraqi insurgents, using materials typically found in locally made improvised explosive devices.