U.S. extradites Singapore man for exporting Iraq bomb parts

By Reuters/Julia Edwards/Yeganeh Torbati April 4, 2016 | 07:25 pm PT

A Singapore man accused of illegally exporting U.S. parts found in explosives in Iraq, through Iran, has been extradited to the United States to face charges on Monday, the Justice Department said.

Lim Yong Nam, 42, was indicted in 2010 for sending radio frequency modules from Minnesota to Iran between 2007 and 2008, violating a U.S. trade embargo. The parts were later found in unexploded improvised explosive devices (IED) in Iraq by U.S. coalition forces.

The devices caused the majority of the casualties against Americans fighting in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, according to the U.S. indictment.

Lim had been detained in Indonesia since October 2014, the Justice Department said.

"After a long investigative process, Mr. Lim is back on U.S. soil to answer for his actions," Sarah Saldana, director of the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement released by the Justice Department.

The department said Lim and several co-conspirators had routed 6,000 radio frequency modules to Iran, 16 of which were discovered in Iraq.

U.S. officials have blamed Iran for supplying Shiite militias with lethal explosives directed against U.S. service members in Iraq.

Iran has said the claims are baseless.

Lim will appear before a federal magistrate judge in Washington, D.C. at 1:30 Eastern (17:30 GMT) on Monday.