Iraq closes borders with Syria and Iran

BAGHDAD, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Iraq's government said on Tuesday it had closed its borders with Syria and Iran and extended the hours of a night curfew in Baghdad under a U.S.- backed security plan to rein in violence in the capital.The measures ordered by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki were announced on Iraqiya state television by Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar, the Iraqi commander who is leading the U.S.-backed security offensive in Baghdad.Qanbar said the border with Iran would be closed for 72 hours. He did not say how long the border with Syria will be closed.


Reading a statement issued in the name of Iraq's cabinet, the general said four Iranian and two Syrian border posts would remain closed for 72 hours, before reopening, but that others would shut indefinitely. The announcement followed two days of bloody bomb attacks in Baghdad and amid accusations by US military commanders that Iran is smuggling weapons to Shiite militias fighting in Iraq's sectarian conflict. Gambar, a 60-year-old Shiite general, has been put in charge of a security plan that will involve dividing Baghdad into 10 districts patrolled by US troops and forces from Iraq's defence and interior ministries. The force, which is slated to rise until it is 60,000-strong, will attempt to root out anti-government insurgents and disarm the illegal militias carrying out sectarian attacks on the city's rival Sunni and Shiite communities.