US Soldiers Kill 1 Uniformed Man, Wound 1, On Iraq-Iran Border
March 14, 2004
The Associated Press
Dow Jones Newswires
TIKRIT, Iraq -- U.S. soldiers killed one uniformed man and injured another, both possibly Iranian border guards, Sunday in a clash on the Iraqi-Iranian border, the U.S. Army said.
The clash occurred between two checkpoints on either side of the border at about 5 p.m., a U.S. military official in Tikrit said.
U.S. soldiers based in Iraq were questioning two suspected fertilizer smugglers in a buffer area between the checkpoints when they were attacked by three men in green and brown uniforms, said the official, who didn't give his name. The gunmen fired from the Iranian side of the border.
The U.S. troops returned fire, killing one assailant and wounding another, the official said. The third man fled.
Based in Tikrit, the 4th Infantry Division's Taskforce Iron Horse is responsible for security in the area northeast of Baghdad where the clash took place. The exact location was unclear.
Saturday, Iraq's U.S.-led occupation authority announced that it will shut most border crossings with Iran.
The new border policy is meant to prevent terrorism in Iraq by monitoring and tightening controls on Iranians, and soon, on other states bordering Iraq, starting with Syria, coalition spokesman Dan Senor said.
By next Saturday, Iraq will close 16 of its 19 border posts on the country's longest border, the 1,440-kilometer frontier with Iran .
But an Iraqi spokesman said the policy ran counter to Iraq's interest and would be reversed after the country gains sovereignty June 30.
"Sooner or later we will have our sovereignty and we will want to have long and friendly relations with Iran ," said Entifadh Qanbar, a spokesman for Ahmad Chalabi, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.
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