Along Iran Border, Iraqi Forces Take More Responsibility as U.S. Troops Begin Stepping Back
All legal border traffic, meanwhile, is funneled through three ports of entry along the Iran-Iraq border. At the largest crossing, called Muntheria, U.S. officials have helped construct a new processing terminal and customs yard to search inbound trucks. There are also X-ray vans to scan fuel trucks for explosives or contraband and teams of Iraqi and U.S. advisers to process passengers. The U.S. military captures biometric data from everyone passing through the port of entry, part of a larger biometrics database compiled by the military. So far, some 16,000 individuals have been placed in the database from the Muntheria crossing alone.
Given all the tariffs, customs, and biometrics, it is little wonder that many with the means simply cross the border at a point 50 miles to the north, where there is no military presence. In fact, during the past year, inspectors at Muntheria haven't seized a single weapon or explosive or captured a wanted criminal. What they have confiscated are large amounts of cash and small amounts of black tar heroin—mostly personal stashes. "Nothing of real military importance is going to come through here when there are open, illegal border crossings other places with no security forces," says Erik Benton, 32, a U.S. Army major who oversees the Muntheria border adviser team. When Benton went to investigate one illegal crossing point, he found lines of trucks a mile long.
Land mines. Iranian agents and soldiers also get caught crossing sometimes, U.S. and Iraqi military and intelligence officials say. In recent weeks, the Iraqi military caught a junior Iranian officer and four soldiers moving into Diyala. "Yes, Iran is sending people across the border to influence what is going on in Diyala," says Col. Burt Thompson, who commands U.S. forces in the province. "Is the evidence releasable to the press? No." But crossing away from the legal ports is not without risk. Last week, a donkey near Muntheria strayed across open ground heading toward Iran, wandered into a field of mines, and lost a leg.
The border area is some of the most heavily mined soil in the world. During the Iran-Iraq war, the opposing armies built defensive lines, shielded by acres of ground sown with antitank and antipersonnel mines. Two dozen Iraqis are injured by such munitions each month, according to the Red Cross, which was last able to conduct surveys in 2001.
When it rains, the mines wash to the surface as the dusty soil turns to mud. October was the wettest in two years, and in places, they were washing up by the dozens. Enterprising Iraqis would gingerly pry the devices from the ground. A standard antitank mine, like the type carried by the donkeys or those that wash from the ground, fetches around $200 on the black market, according to Iraqi military officials.
Insurgents can easily re-fuze the devices for use against local targets or send them to Baghdad, Mosul, or other cities where the insurgency is still active, says Lt. Col. Michael Kasales, the tough-talking commander of a U.S. Army cavalry battalion, which is responsible for more than 100 miles of border in Diyala. Violence might be down in Iraq overall, but here in Diyala, the threat remains serious. Says Kasales, "It's an open arms depot, and it's one of the most significant threats to our forces here." Particularly with the explosive combination of tribes, religions, and ethnicities that can be as combustible as the old munitions.
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