(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-24 21:21

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Iran closed major border crossings with northern Iraq on Monday to protest the US detention of an Iranian official the military accused of weapons smuggling, a Kurdish official said.

Iraqis examine a vehicle destroyed in an overnight raid by US.troops in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq on Monday, Sept. 24, 2007.  [AP]

At least four border gates have been closed and one remains open, the governor of the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah, Dana Ahmed Majeed, told The Associated Press. The move threatens the economy of Iraq's northern region - one of the country's few success stories.

In Tehran, the public relations department in Iran's Interior Ministry said no decision had been taken to shut the border.

But Kurdish authorities said the Iranians began shutting down the crossing points late Sunday near the border towns of Banjiwin, Haj Omran, Halabja and Khanaqin.

The closings came four days after US troops arrested an Iranian official during a raid on a hotel in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad.

US officials said he was a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that smuggles weapons into Iraq. But Iraqi and Iranian leaders said he was in the country on official business and with the full knowledge of the government.

"This closure from the Iranian side will have a bad effect on the economic situation of the Kurdish government and will hurt the civilians as well," said Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the autonomous Kurdish government. "We are paying the price of what the Americans have done by arresting the Iranian."

A US military spokesman, Rear Adm. Mark Fox, also said Sunday that Iran has smuggled advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops, including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system and could threaten US aviation.

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