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WORLD / Middle East
Report: Pentagon plans base near Iraq-Iran border
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-09-10 16:45
New York - The Pentagon is preparing to build a military base near the
Iraq-Iran border to try to curtail the flow of advanced Iranian weaponry
to Shiite militants across Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reported on
Monday in its online edition.
A US soldier of Bravo company, 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery
Regiment stands in an open area during a night operation at Zafraniya
neighborhood in Baghdad, September 8, 2007. [Reuters]
Quoting Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry
Division, the Journal said the Pentagon also plans to build fortified
checkpoints on major highways leading from the Iranian border to Baghdad,
and install X-ray machines and explosives-detecting sensors at the only
formal border crossing between the two countries.
The base will be located about four miles from the Iranian border and
will be used for at least two years, according to the report. US
officials told the paper it is unclear whether it will be among the small
number of facilities that would remain in Iraq after any future
large-scale US withdrawal.
The report comes on the same day the top US commander in Iraq and US
Ambassador Ryan Crocker present a progress report to the US Congress on
the war.
US President George W. Bush, under mounting pressure to change course in
Iraq, plans a prime time speech on the war this week. He is unlikely to
unveil a major shift in strategy in the 4-year-old war that has claimed
the lives of more than 3,700 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis.
Early Monday morning, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington
told Reuters he could not comment on the specifics of the report, but
said: "Coalition and Iraqi partners will continue to put pressure on the
enemy, including disruptions of any supply lines, in an effort to reduce
violence and to protect the Iraqi people."
Lynch told the paper, "We've got a major problem with Iranian munitions
streaming into Iraq. This Iranian interference is troubling and we have
to stop it."
US officials accuse Iran of fomenting violence to destabilize Iraq and of
seeking to build nuclear weapons under cover of civilian nuclear program,
charges Iran denies.
Maj. Toby Logsdon, the US officer overseeing the project, told the
Journal that the new outpost will have living quarters for at least 200
soldiers, who could arrive in November.
"Iran will know this is here -- they will have to rethink how they do
things, and the smugglers will have to rethink how they do things,"
Logsdon told the Journal.
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