Iraq closed three border crossings with Iran on Saturday, officials told AFP, after a drone attack on a Saudi Arabian pipeline that both Riyadh and Baghdad said was launched from Iraq.
An Iraqi security source and a government official told AFP that authorities ordered the closing of three border crossings with Iran.
The security source said the decision was "part of an intelligence effort to track down the perpetrators and prevent their escape... and to hinder the smuggling of drones through these crossings".
Both sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media, could not specify when the crossings would reopen.
The closed crossings are Shalamsheh in Basra province, al-Shib in Missan and al-Mandali in the central province of Diyala.
Other border crossings with Iran are still open.
A security official said that "security forces found drone launchers near the Iraq-Iran border in the al-Tib" region, a remote part of Missan, close to the al-Shib crossing. A second security source gave the same account.
Military spokesperson Sabah al-Numan said the prime minister had approved "Iran's request to conduct a joint investigation into finding drone launch platforms near the Iraq-Iran border".
The government's security media cell said earlier that authorities "have started administrative and security reorganization operations at several border crossings".
It added that they had stepped up "intelligence activities" to determine "the breaches and violations that took place at these crossings".
It later announced that passengers stranded for hours at two crossings were permitted to pass.
