Iran closes Iraq crossing after bomb attacks, reports say

Tehran: Iran has closed a border crossing with Iraq for Iranians after many pilgrims from the Islamic Republic were killed in two bomb attacks in the neighbouring country, official media reported on Saturday.

Most of the 57 people who were killed in a suicide bomb on Thursday in the northeastern Iraqi province of Diyala were Iranians, who have flocked to Iraq's Shiite holy sites since Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003.

The following day, two female suicide bombers blew themselves up near a Shiite Muslim shrine in Baghdad, killing 60 people, police said. Many of the dead and wounded were Iranian pilgrims.

"After ... bombings in Iraq and the martyrdom of a number of Iranian pilgrims, crossing the Khosravi border for Iranians has been banned until further notice," the official IRNA news agency and radio reports said.

The Khosravi border crossing lies north-east of Baghdad. Iranian media did not say whether other border crossings were also affected.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hassan Qashqavi, on Friday condemned the attacks.

"Some are trying to weaken the deep historical and growing ties between the two nations of Iran and Iraq and to justify the illegitimate presence of foreigners with the continuation of insecurity in this country and in the region," he said.

Iranian officials have often said the presence of US forces in Iraq is worsening the security situation there.