Northern Iraq Smugglers Cross to Iran

[leftchick]

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-iraq-iran-porous-border,0,5481318.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

<snip.

Leaving her house at 7 a.m., when weather permits, Tawfiq is usually back home in Iraq by 2 p.m., in time for lunch with her children.

As the White House denies allegations that American spies are crossing into Iran from here to search for nuclear sites, Tawfiq is proof that the border in this rugged northern Kurdish region of Iraq is plenty easy to navigate -- for those who know how.

Iraqi guards here say they have increased security at the Iranian border since the war, try to prevent illegal crossings and know nothing about any U.S.-run covert operations into Iran.

They do acknowledge, though, that relations with Iranian border guards on the other side are poor.

And in a trip last week to the region, it was not hard to find smugglers and ordinary Iraqi and Iranian Kurds with relatives on both sides who cross regularly here without visas or passports.