Iran closes border with northern Iraq

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

Iran closed major border crossings with northern Iraq on Monday to protest the U.S. detention of an Iranian official the military accused of weapons smuggling, a Kurdish official said.

At least four border gates had been closed, with just one remaining open in a move that will severely curtail trade between the two countries, the governor of the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah, Dana Ahmed Majeed, told The Associated Press.

The move came four days after U.S. troops arrested an Iranian official during a raid on a hotel in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad.

U.S. officials said he was a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that smuggles weapons into Iraq. But Iraqi and Iranian leaders said he was in the country on official business and with the full knowledge of the government.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070924/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[rpannier]

1. Sounds to me like they're preparing for war

Better start bombing Iran immediately.

I'm sure the populace will treat us as liberators and after 6 days to 6 weeks, I doubt 6 months...the country will be a flowering Jeffersonian-Democracy with a town square named after George Bush and every third child born in the country (boy or girl) having the name George HW ______________.

[sabra]

2. Iran shuts border with Iraqi Kurds

Source: CNN

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Iran has closed its five entry points with Iraq's Kurdish region, in protest against the recent incarceration of an Iranian by the U.S. military, an Iraqi Kurdish official said Monday

One Iraqi official says the move will hurt the economy of the autonomous region, where there is heavy traffic over the Iraq-Iran borders.

Jamal Abdullah, the official spokesman of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government, said Iran made good on its threat to close the border because the Iranian, Mahmoody Farhadi, had not been released. One of the entry points is in Irbil, two are in Sulaimaniya and two are in Khanaqin.

The man was arrested Thursday in Sulaimaniya by U.S. troops, said the American military, which referred to him as a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps - Quds Force. The agency has been accused of training and equipping insurgents in Iraq.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/24/iraq.border/

[Ripley]

3. Heard the most bizarre NPR story on that this morning..

The reporter over there was emphatic that the Kurds INVITED this trade negotiator from Iran over and he was welcomed there. Then these US troop(er)s raided his hotel and KIDNAPPED him claiming he was a terrorist. The American journalist sounded shocked about the story and said the Iraqi president vehemently objected to what the US troop(er)s did.

But then I believe it was Jean Cochran the NPR spokesperson who said "And this may have a lingering affect on Iraqi's economy which is one of the shining successes there." (paraphrase)

:nuke:

[FormerRepub]

4. Iran shuts Kurdish border

I just checked the online websites for the BBC & al Jazeera (English)....unless they've changed since I left the sites, there is no mention of this story. I am amazed at the amount of news we are able to get out of Iraq. I'm sure the there is a tremendous amount of news that is successfully repressed.