Iraq: forged ballots ceized at Iran border

Iraqi border police have seized several thousand forged ballots in a truck entering the country from Iran, but fear other loads managed to get through.

From the words of an Interior Ministry source who asked not to be identified the discovery was made Tuesday night by agents with the U.S.-trained border protection force at the Iraqi town of Badra, after the truck crossed at Munthirya.

Iraq will hold national parliamentary elections Thursday.

The Iranian truck driver told police that at least three other trucks filled with ballots had crossed from Iran at different spots along the border.

At a news conference Tuesday, before the ballot seizure, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, spoke of what he said were overt Iranian attempts to influence events in Iraq.

"There are predatory states, the hegemonic states, with aspirations of regional hegemony in the area, such as Iran," he said. "There are states that fear success of democracy here - that it might be infectious and spread," UPI quoted Zalmay Khalilzad as saying.

Photo: the AP

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