BASRA, Iraq – A military commander says Iraq's border forces have arrested 94 infiltrators who illegally crossed into the country from Iran.
The Iraqi Brigadier General in charge of the southern borders says the infiltrators, all Afghans and Iranians, were arrested yesterday crossing into southern Basra (search) and Amarah (search). The general says most of them had no travel documents and the rest didn't have proper ones.
An Iraqi court has ruled that they will be deported to Iran.
U.S. officials have raised constant concerns about the country's porous border, saying foreign fighters from surrounding nations are flooding into Iraq to join the insurgency.
Iraqi and U.S. forces are boosting efforts to close the crossing points, but they have to protect 22-hundred miles of frontier shared with six countries, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
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