Border insecurity

[unhappycamper]

A border agent, left, hand-searches luggage at a crossing near the town of Konnikin. The Iraqi Border Patrol is undermanned, often resulting in long lines at crossings between Iran and Iraq.


Border insecurity
By Heath Druzin, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, November 16, 2008

MANDALI, Iraq — In the rugged, desolate terrain outside this dusty frontier town, armed men in castle turrets face off on opposite sides of a meandering river.

The scene, reminiscent of medieval Europe, takes place daily on the porous Iran-Iraq border, where U.S. forces and poorly equipped members of the Iraqi Border Patrol struggle to control the flow of fighters and weapons.

"The border is like a sieve," said Col. Burt Thompson, whose soldiers with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division are tasked with keeping tabs on the border in Diyala province.

Minefields, left from the bloody war Iraq fought with Iran in the 1980s, dot both sides of the border and are visible from many of the Iraqi border posts — small brick or stucco buildings with turrets, which the Iraqis call castles.

A lucrative black market business has sprung up along the border, with destitute Iraqis collecting the mines and selling them to insurgents, said Lt. Col. Mike Kasales, who commands a squadron of soldiers responsible for about 130 miles of border. At up to $200 for an anti-tank mine, it’s a tempting proposition for both unscrupulous opportunists and poor farmers hammered by a lengthy drought in Diyala province.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58839