Iran Deploys More Troops Along Afghanistan Border

Iranian troops prepared Wednesday for fresh war games on the country’s tense border with Afghanistan after Tehran ordered nine more army divisions to the area to take part in the exercises.

Iran, which already has about 70,000 troops massed on the border, said the new military maneuvers could begin as early as Saturday.

Iranian naval forces were also added to the exercises, and a top military commander spoke of being pushed toward war in a crisis that was sparked when Afghan Taliban fighters killed at least nine Iranians in an August offensive.

Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency said two of the 11 Iranians originally reported missing in Afghanistan had returned home alive. One said that he faked death when Taliban fighters opened fire.

The remains of seven other Iranians, including a journalist, were returned home Monday, while two other bodies were left in Afghanistan because Iranian authorities could not verify their identities.

The ruling Taliban militia, which controls more than 90% of Afghanistan and has confined the opposition to the northeast, says it has moved at least 6,000 fighters into the border area and will target Iranian cities if Afghanistan is attacked.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said diplomatic approaches should be given a chance before military action is taken.

Iran, which considers itself the spiritual guardian of Afghanistan’s Shiite Muslim community, is enraged over the slaying of its diplomats five weeks ago when Taliban fighters captured Mazar-i-Sharif, the last big town controlled by Afghanistan’s opposition.

Amid the deepening crisis, the U.N. Security Council called on the Taliban to stop fighting and settle its dispute through negotiations, while diplomatic efforts on the Afghanistan issue intensified.

In Washington, officials said the U.S. and Iranian foreign ministers may meet Monday as part of a larger group discussing Afghanistan, in what would be the highest-level contacts between the two enemy nations in years.