Iraq on guard against Iran

Associated Press

QUTAIBA BORDER FORT, Iraq

On any map, this castlelike fort is in Iran. But war, time and drifting desert sands have blurred the border, and for now, Iraqi guards stoutly defend Qutaiba as theirs.

The guards are part of a beefed-up presence on both sides of a long, porous and ill-defined border.

Iraq is building four new border forts in its eastern Wasit province alone, which abuts Iran for 116 miles. Iran also is adding forts, evidenced by half-built structures surrounded by scaffolding that can be seen from Iraq.

The increased tension is a result of an Iraqi government in limbo as American troops prepare to leave the country after more than eight years of war.

Underscoring the insecure time, Iraqi wariness of Iranian aggression is on the rise, especially after two major Iranian incursions in less than a year.

“The region here is like a jungle: The strong eat the weak,” said Iraqi Brig. Gen. Sami Wahab, who oversees the nearby Zurbatiyah port of entry, the largest official pedestrian land crossing between Iraq and Iran.

“If the Iraqi government keeps going backward and reaches the level where you can say it’s a weak country, then there’s a good chance of Iran coming in,” Sami said. “But we don’t have cannons to respond; we don’t have jets to bomb. That’s why the Iraqi people are scared.”

On Sunday, Iranian Gen. Abdolrasoul Mahmoudabadi said the Revolutionary Guards had pushed into Iraq over the weekend and killed at least 30 members of an armed group involved in an attack last week that Iran had blamed on Kurdish rebels.

It was a rare example of Iran openly admitting to a cross-border incursion into Iraq.

Iran and Iraq are formerly warring neighbors that have settled over the last several years into an uneasy relationship.

Few experts expect a full-scale invasion reminiscent of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that began in 1980, as both nations have their hands full with domestic turmoil.