Iraq-Iran: Border Tension Rising, Says General

Skirmishes along the Iran-Iraq border have soared in recent weeks, to such an extent that the two sides are now trading threats of military action, a senior member of Iraq’s security forces said in an newspaper interview. General Nazim Mohammad, chief of the Iraqi border police in the border town Muntheria, told Dubai-based daily Gulf News that he had personally told his Iranian counterparts their soldiers would be shot if they strayed too close to Iraqi fortifications. The tension comes as Iranians go to the polls in presidential elections.

Mohammad claimed his forces had come under small arms fire from the Iranians. Iranian troops had also fired mortars which exploded on Iraqi soil, he said.

US military sources also confirmed there had been mortar strikes, which they said appeared to have hit the no-man
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