If the “Free Syrian Army” is executing POWs in plain sight of Iraqi border guards then this does not bode well for a post Assad Syria living in peace.

In Baghdad, Iraqi government officials confirmed the seizures of the four crossings and said the frontier was shut and additional Iraqi troops sent there as a precaution.

One top Iraqi government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said the border crossings, in Anbar and Nineveh Provinces, were closed and that Iraqi border forces had witnessed the executions of several Syrian Army soldiers at the hands of the Free Syrian Army rebels.

Iraq’s acting minister of the interior, Adnan al-Assadi, was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that Iraqi forces had witnessed the executions of 22 Syrian soldiers. Mr. Assadi could not immediately be reached to confirm that account.

Many Iraqis who were trying to flee the violence in Syria were now unable to return to Iraq, a top government official said.