As part of the new counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq, General David Petraeus directed Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces to target Iranian-backed extremists with the same intensity as they were showing in their campaign against al Qaeda in Iraq. In the process, Multinational Forces Iraq has learned much about the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps - Qods Force's activities in Iraq, and has killed or captured hundreds of its Iraqi Shia operatives since the surge began. Now that the attack levels have dropped dramatically, the U.S. is planning on releasing some of the Iranian captured in those sweeps. The Iranian government, naturally, is pleased by this development. Reuters reports:

U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smith said the Iranians to be released included two who were among five detained by U.S. forces in northern Iraq in January on suspicion of providing support to Shi'ite militias. The others were detained over the past several years.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari hailed the announcement, saying it was a confidence-building measure that would encourage more productive talks between Iran, Iraq and the United States on improving security in Iraq.

It appears the U.S. is responding to the significant drop in attacks over the past few months, and is attempting to make overtures to Iran. "Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, who is in charge of day-to-day military operations in Iraq, said the number of explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, that were found or detonated dropped from a peak of 99 in July to 53 in October," the AP reported earlier this month.

But the military is not sure why the attacks have slowed. "They might have slowed the rate of sending EFPs in," Odierno said, referring to the Iranians. "I just can't tell you right now. I think in a couple of months I'll be able to give you a better idea of that." Another possibility is that the surge has significantly degraded the capabilities of the Qods Force and the Special Groups.

The U.S. has captured several high ranking Qods Force leaders over the past year, including Mahmud Farhadi, one of the three regional commanders of the Ramazan Corps, which is Qods Force's organizational command for operations in Iraq. U.S. forces also captured Ali Mussa Daqduq, a senior Hezbollah leader who was charged with building the Iranian-backed Special Groups along the same lines as Hezbollah. The U.S. military has given no indication of its plans for Farhadi and Daqduq.