Although Karbala had been the site of many attacks, it had largely been free of the spectacular bombings that regularly took place in Baghdad or the heavy urban warfare seen in Fallujah, Mosul, Baqubah, Ramadi, and elsewhere.

[2] After being waved through the last of three checkpoints manned by Iraqi security forces at around 17:45, the militants parked their (at least) five SUVs[8] near the city's Provisional Joint Coordination Center (PJCC) main building.

[9] They pulled two more soldiers, PFC Shawn Patrick Falter and SPC Jonathan Bryan Chism out of an armored humvee, at the entrance.

Shortly after crossing the Euphrates River, the militants, who were then being followed by U.S. attack helicopters, shot their four captives and abandoned five vehicles along with uniforms, equipment, and a rifle.

In a speech on January 31, 2007, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stated that Iran was supporting attacks against Coalition forces in Iraq[13] and some Iraqis suspect that the raid may have been perpetrated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's Qods Force in retaliation for the U.S. raid on the Iranian Liaison Office in Erbil on 11 January.

[17] This raid required specific intelligence, in depth training for the agents to pass as American troops, resources to provide for weapons, vehicles, uniforms, identification, radios and other items needed to successfully carry out the mission.

Hezbollah's Imad Mugniyah executed a similar attack against Israeli forces on the Lebanese border, which initiated the Hezbollah-Israeli war during the summer of 2006… Mahawil (where abandoned vehicles & the victim's bodies were found) is in Babil province, about 27 miles directly east of Karbala.

IF [sic] it is confirmed that Iran's Qods Force was responsible, the news that the United States has authorized the death or captured [sic] of Iranian agents inside Iraq, as well as in Afghanistan and Lebanon makes all the more sense.On July 2, 2007, the U.S. military said that information from captured Hezbollah fighter Ali Musa Daqduq established a link between Quds Force and the Karbala raid.

"[18] On June 9, 2007, Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal wrote that U.S. Government had discovered satellite imagery showing an exact mockup of the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center compound inside of Iran.