While Iraq's neighbours are criticised for allegedly failing to stop militants entering the war-torn country, Iraq's own nascent border forces are struggling to bring order to long and porous frontiers. Even after months of US training aimed at tightening control over boundaries with six countries, including US foes Syria and Iran, those in charge of training the force say the task remains a steep challenge.
"It is impossible to protect 100 percent of the borders 100 percent of the time," said US Colonel Carl Lammers, who advises Iraqi border guards' commanders.
The Iraqi force had 11,000 members last August, now boasts more than 19,000 members and is set to exceed 28,000 by May, with most of the force's recruits having the advantage of experience in the army of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
They receive two weeks' training before being deployed to one of 258 control towers spread along the thousands of miles (kilometers) of Iraq's borders.
Each tower is supposed to have four vehicles and some means of communication.
"But some of the towers are not entirely rehabilitated and are inadequately equipped," said an Iraqi lieutenant colonel, requesting anonymity.
He said the problematic areas are "mainly to the west (with Syria) and the south," with Saudi Arabia.
Iraq's frontiers cover more than 3,500 kilometers (2,170 miles), including 1,400 kilometers (875 miles) of border with Iran, more than 600 kilometers (375 miles) with Syria and some 800 kilometers (500 miles) with Saudi Arabia.
In addition to the usual smuggling of cattle, cigarettes and gasoline, the borders are reportedly also a main entry point for weapons and Arab would-be jihadis seeking to join the raging insurgency.
The United Nations Security Council on August 4 unanimously adopted a resolution urging "member states to prevent the transit of terrorists to and from Iraq, arms for terrorists and financing that would support terrorists."
Earlier this month, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld alleged that weapons smuggled "unambiguously" from Iran had been found in Iraq, and that Iran has been "unhelpful" in stopping the cross-border smuggling.
But smuggling is not a one-way street.
Two Iranian border guards were killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack launched by alcohol bootleggers in late July, reportedly following a tightening of border security on the Iranian side.
Washington and Baghdad also regularly single out Syria for allegedly allowing militants into Iraq, charges strenuously denied by Damascus which says it has detained thousands of aspiring fighters on its side of the border.
Nevertheless, the area across from Syria inside Iraqi territory has seen some of the most violent clashes between US-Iraqi forces and insurgents, with air strikes in the Euphrates river valley area killing dozens in recent months.
The situation is not much better to the south.
New Saudi ambassador to Washington Prince Turki al-Faisal said in late July that Iraqi authorities were not doing enough to tighten border security there.
"It is fully manned on our side of the border, but it is not manned at all on the Iraqi side of the border," Faisal said.
"And that's the problem, not just on the border with Saudi Arabia, but with other borders, with Iran, with Turkey, with Syria and with Jordan," he said.
A Saudi newspaper reported Wednesday that five Saudi nationals had been killed fighting against US forces in Iraq over the past week.
But Lammers defended the work of the border guards explaining that "borders are porous."
"Where the threat is greater, intervals between forts (control towers) are smaller, like in Sinjar" on the Syrian border, he said.
"Sometimes we get tips at the border and we can stop (suspects) down the highway," he said, pointing to fatal bombings in London on July 7 as evidence that Iraq was not the only country unable to prevent attacks on its soil.
US forces have provided Iraqi guards with vehicles equipped with X-ray detectors to quickly scan suspect trucks, Lammers said, declining to disclose the number of these vehicles or where they are deployed. "It is not a panacea, but the progress is growing," he said.
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