FT.com / In depth - Iraq closes borders with Iran and Syria

FT.com / In depth - Iraq closes borders with Iran and Syria

Iraq closes borders with Iran and Syria

By Reuters Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:54AM GMT

Iraq closed its borders with Iran and Syria as U.S. and Iraqi troops tightened their grip on Baghdad on Thursday, setting up more checkpoints that stopped and searched even official convoys for weapons.

An Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the closure of Iraq’s four border crossings with Iran and two with Syria took effect on Wednesday.

U.S. officials have long accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to cross its long, porous border into Iraq, and at the weekend presented evidence of what they said was Iranian-manufactured weapons being smuggled into Iraq.

“The plan to close the borders went into effect last night. Many points were closed, but I can’t confirm that all were shut,” Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver told Reuters.

There was no immediate confirmation from Tehran or Damascus, both of which deny involvement in Iraq’s chaos.

Iraq had said it would shut the borders for 72 hours. The U.S. military said on Wednesday the aim was to choke off the flow of weapons and foreign fighters into the country.

The closures came as thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops stepped up operations in Baghdad, the epicentre of sectarian violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shi’ites that has pitched the country towards all-out civil war.

Fewer members of the Mehdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al Sadr have been seen on the streets of their stronghold, the sprawling Sadr City slum in east Baghdad, in the past week.

Several Mehdi Army commanders are also reported to have left the capital to avoid arrest.

The United States has identified the militia as the greatest threat to peace in Iraq and hundreds of Mehdi Army members have been arrested.

The U.S. military and Iraqi government officials have said Sadr himself left Iraq for Iran ahead of the crackdown, but Maliki said he was still in Iraq.

STOP AND SEARCH

The chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Major-General William Caldwell, said checkpoints were to be revamped to establish “transfer points” so vehicles could be searched.

The U.S. military said last week the operation was under way, but Baghdad residents had noticed little change until Wednesday, when checkpoints began springing up in the city.

Operation Imposing Law is seen as a last-ditch effort to stabilise the capital. Shi’ite officials have warned that failure could mean a collapse of the Shi’ite-led government. U.S. President George W. Bush is sending more than 17,000 additional troops for the crackdown.

More checkpoints appeared overnight and residents reported that even official government or security convoys were stopped and asked for weapons permits and identification papers.


A Reuters photographer said only people with Interior and Defence Ministry badges were allowed to keep their weapons.


Civilians with permits still had their guns seized. He saw two people arrested for not having identification documents.


Policemen and soldiers searched vehicles thoroughly, using long metal rods to prod piles of vegetables to look for bombs or weapons. The city is blighted by daily car bombings that have killed thousands.


Similar operations in the past have ended in failure, partly because Shi’ite militias tied to parties within the government were seen as off-limits, but Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said this time militants will be targeted regardless of their religious affiliation.


Military analysts say many militiamen were likely to lie low or leave Baghdad until the operation is completed rather than seek confrontation with U.S. and Iraqi forces.


“Some of the brothers who are wanted by the Americans have moved house because we’ve been targeted before,” Salam al-Maliki, a senior Sadr official, told Reuters.


Sadr official Maliki said the movement backed the crackdown. “That’s why there is no resistance to the security forces in our areas. The prime minister assured us that we won’t be targeted as an organisation but only death squads, terrorists and criminals wanted by the authorities.”