In the 1980s Iran and Iraq fought to a bloody stalemate on a thin strip of desert over access to a waterway, the Shatt al Arab, that had been in dispute since the days of the Ottoman Empire.

The war was a pure fire-power battle resembling the trench warfare of World War I and the set piece charges of the American Civil War.

The tension over the Iran/Iraq border still lingers making border security one of the key missions of US Forces in Iraq.

I spent a day at the Shalamcha Port of Entry, a bustling entry point for Iranian tourists and transhipment point east of Basrah, Iraq.

Every morning hundreds and sometimes thousands of Iranian tourists line up on the Iranian side of the border to enter Iraq.  The tourists arrive in busses, unload, cue up, get their passports stamped then load up in busses on the Iraqi side headed for the holy sites in Karbala or Samarra.

In the afternoon, busses unload tourists heading back to Iran.

Iranian tourists lined up to enter Iraq.

Hundreds of trailer loads of goods also enter Iraq six days a week through Shalamcha.  Tractor trailers park in a load yard on the Iranian side of the border, Iraqi drivers transload the cargo into their trailers, then drive into Iraq where the cargo is weighed, taxed and, at least in theory, inspected by Iraqi customs agents.

Very little cargo is shipped from Iraq into Iran.

The truck gate at the Shalamacha Port of Entry.

Pedestrian lane heading into Iran.

The physical and attitudinal remants of the war between Iraq and Iran still remain.  Firing positions for tanks are still in place and large tank traps still dominate the land scape.

At one time this area had the largest date palm groves in the world, but the land has been stripped bare of vegetation and canal works.

This is a tank trap temporarily filled with water from a rainstorm, not a canal.  The far side is Iran.

The attitudinal remnants of the war physically manifest themselves in the gradual encroachment of Iran at Shalamcha.

In the photo below the green, white and red flag of Iran is only 30 feet from the red, white and black flag of Iraq. Several months ago, the Iranian flag was at the far end of the yellow awning.  If you look closely, on the lower right 1/4 of the photo you can see a metal gate painted green, white and red that is in Iraqi territory.

The Iranian port of entry facilities as viewed from the entry arch to Iraq.

As the clock counts down to the official end of Operation Iraqi Freedom in August when a new phase called Operation New Dawn begins, working with the Iraqi Border Enforcement agency will be one of the key efforts of US Forces in the South and for the 1st Infantry Division. 

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