Sunday, August 02, 2009 WASHINGTON: The United States said Saturday it has asked Switzerland, which represents US interests in Tehran, to confirm reports that three American tourists were arrested through the border with Iraq. "We have seen Iranian media reports stating that three American citizens have been detained in Iran," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood in a statement."We have asked our Swiss protecting power to confirm these reports with Iranian authorities and, if true, to seek consular access," he said. "The protection of American citizens is our highest priority," he added. In northern Iraq, a Kurdish official said earlier that three US backpackers were arrested after having been warned on the Iraqi side not to hike in the mountains because of the proximity of the border with Iran. Beshro Ahmed, media adviser for general security in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, said the two men and a woman had entered from Turkey earlier along with a fourth American who did not join the trek because he was ill. According to media, Iran detained the three US nationals on Friday after they crossed into the country from Iraqi Kurdistan. Ahmed named the three as Shane Bower, Sara Short and Joshua Steel, while Shaun Gabriel Maxwell stayed behind in their hotel in the Kurdish region's second largest city of Sulaimaniyah. Iranian state television, without quoting a source, said on an earlier Saturday news bulletin that three US military personnel had gone missing near the border. "Three US military personnel went missing in an area bordering Iran-Iraq," the announcer said.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
Comments