Iran sealing Iraq border site after detention of 2 al-Qaeda suspects

ASSOCIATED PRESS

2:05 p.m. February 7, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran announced on Wednesday it would close a border crossing with Iraq, a day after two al-Qaeda suspects were detained as they crossed the checkpoint, the official news agency reported.

Iran said Tuesday that it had detained two suspected al-Qaeda members who had entered but did not provide any more details on the suspects.

The United States accuses Iran of harboring fugitives belonging to Osama bin Laden's terror network. But Iran insists it has made a significant contribution to the war on terror by arresting agents from the group.

The checkpoint at Mehran, 470 miles southwest of Tehran, will be closed for four days for individual travelers starting Thursday, the town governor, Khaled Rahimi, was quoted as saying by the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Most of the people passing through there are Shiite pilgrims from both Iran and Iraq, traveling to holy Shiite sites in either country. Over 5,000 people are believed to pass the border point daily.

“The transit of pilgrims will be banned for four days ... after both the Iraqi and Iranian side agreed on it. The decision was made based on measures by the U.S. forces in Iraq,” Rahimi said, without elaborating.

The checkpoint will remain open to commercial transport.

American counterterrorism officials have said that a handful of senior al-Qaeda operatives who fled to Iran after the war in Afghanistan in 2001 may have developed a working relationship with a secretive military unit linked to Iran's religious hard-liners. Iran has rejected the charges.

Iran also says it has repatriated more than 500 suspected al-Qaeda operatives, most of them Saudis. It has also said that some al-Qaeda suspects would stand trial in Iranian courts for offenses committed in Iran, but no reports of such trials have emerged.