Iraq denies border forces withdrew from Saudi Arabian frontier

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi prime minister's military spokesman denied on Thursday that the country's border guards had withdrawn from the frontier with Saudi Arabia, after a Saudi-owned television channel reported Iraqi forces had quit their posts. "This is false news aimed at affecting the morale of our people and the morale of our heroic fighters," the spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassim Atta, told reporters in Baghdad. He added that the frontier was "fully in the grip" of Iraqi border troops. (Reporting by Isra' al-Rubei' and Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Alison Williams)