Iraq closes three border crossings with Iran after attack that shut Saudi pipeline, officials say

Iraq closed three border crossings with Iran on Saturday, an Iraqi security source and a government official tell AFP, after a drone attack on a Saudi Arabian pipeline that both Riyadh and Baghdad said was launched from Iraq.

The security source says the decision is “part of an intelligence effort to track down the perpetrators and prevent their escape… and to hinder the smuggling of drones through these crossings.”

Both sources, who speak on condition of anonymity because they are unauthorized to speak to the media, do not specify when the crossings will reopen.

The closed crossings are Shalamsheh in Basra province and al-Shib in Missan, as well as al-Mandali in the central province of Diyala. Other border crossings with Iran are still open.

The Iraqi government’s security media cell says that authorities “have started administrative and security reorganization operations at several border crossings.”

It adds that they have stepped up “intelligence activities” to determine “the breaches and violations that took place at these crossings,” without specifying which border posts. It later announces that passengers stranded for hours at two crossings are permitted to pass.

Soon after the attack on Saudi Arabia, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi dismissed the military commander in Missan province, bordering Iran, after authorities determined that the drones had been launched from there.

No group has claimed responsibility, and an alliance of powerful Tehran-backed Iraqi armed groups say they hadn’t struck the pipeline, but Riyadh has previously accused these groups of targeting its oil infrastructure.

“Accusations against the Iraqi resistance regarding the targeting of vital Saudi installations on Friday are an honor that we do not claim,” the groups operating under the umbrella of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq say in a statement.