US Starts Late Manning Iran-Iraq Border

Commanders said the facilities _ complete with Internet access, electricity and housing _ will enable the troops to spend every day at the border. That's an improvement over making the dangerous, 50-mile commute in convoys from their regional hub near Kut, a violence-ridden city of 350,000.

Maj. Toby Logsdon, 34, of Litchfield, Ill., who is overseeing the $5 million project, said the aim is to have it operational by November.

But he conceded the deadline may be overly optimistic. He stood on a watchtower at an adjacent Iraqi base and pointed to a 150-by-300-yard patch of empty desert with no sign of development except for two working gravel pits in the distance.

The problem has roots in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, when the American military was focused on seizing Baghdad. The U.S. Marines received orders to send patrols to the area southeast of Baghdad _ but not to the frontier itself, despite fears it was a tempting entry point for Islamic militants from Iran.

The Iranians took advantage by building a concrete wall separating the two countries at one of four border crossings. The wall blocked views of the trucks being searched and their cargoes loaded into Iraqi vehicles on their territory.

Iran denies it is stoking violence in Iraq, but there's no doubt that Shiite-dominated Iran's influence on trade and politics over the border has grown since the toppling of Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime. That has the U.S. nervous.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who commands U.S. troops south of the capital in a bid to block the flow of weapons and fighters into Baghdad, said last month that his troops were tracking about 50 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in their area _ the first detailed allegation that Iranians have been training fighters within Iraq's borders.

The charge against an Iranian military unit the White House is considering blacklisting as a terrorist group bolsters previous American claims of Iranian meddling in Iraq.

The top commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, also said this month that he had solid evidence, including the explanations of captured Iranian agents, that Iran was behind lethal attacks in Iraq. Petraeus warned Congress that the U.S. already was fighting a "proxy war" with Iran.

For the U.S. soldiers in Wasit, that means bolstering security at the Zurbatiya border crossing _ a wire-enclosed maze through which as many as 1,200 Iranians a day can enter Iraq legally, most pilgrims headed to the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. The number of Iraqis traveling to and from Iran is not limited, but they are screened and searched.

The Americans have made progress since arriving on June 20, installing a computer system for their Iraqi counterparts to track wanted suspects, implementing a biometrics system to take iris scans and fingerprints, and building metal hangers and awnings to shield pilgrims as temperatures soar above 120 degrees.

They're providing X-ray machines for luggage, hiring porters to unload trucks and building a watchtower to allow better oversight of trucks being searched and loaded on the Iranian side. The Iranians already have one, although Mueller insists his will be taller.