"In coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG], we are continuing to erect a wall from the Rabia border [in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province] to Peshkhabur [in the Kurdistan Region’s northern Duhok province]," Brigadier General Haider al-Karkhi, media director for Iraq's Border Guard Command, told Rudaw on Wednesday. He added that the goal is "to control the entire border of the region."
Iraq shares a 618-kilometer border with Syria. Two years ago, the Iraqi government began constructing a three-meter-high concrete wall along the frontier, including concrete barriers, deep trenches, and watchtowers.
Following the early December collapse of longtime Syrian dictator Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
’s regime - a former ally of Baghdad - Iraq ramped up efforts to secure its border with Syria amid concerns over potential instability and infiltration by Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
(ISIS) holy warriors and sleeper cells.
So far, the stretch from the Rabia sub-district in Nineveh to near al-Qaim in the western Anbar province has been completed. The Iraqi government has stated that it does not plan to stop until the entire Syrian border is walled off.
Starting from the Ottoman Turkish border, the stretch between Peshkhabur in the Kurdistan Region’s northern Duhok province and Rabia spans 40 kilometers along the Iraq-Syria frontier.
"So far, approximately 350 kilometers of concrete wall have been installed along the Syrian border, and we will continue to install more," Karkhi said.
Following Assad’s collapse, Iraqi authorities also closed key border crossings with Syria. Karkhi added that "a new border monitoring center has been opened in Baghdad, where 975 thermal cameras and border surveillance drones are monitored."
As of mid-September, the Border Guard Command reported that nearly 99 percent of the border is monitored by surveillance cameras, with drones conducting daily patrols of fortified sections.
These security measures also target illicit cross-border trade, particularly the smuggling of drugs such as Captagon - an issue that predates Assad’s regime collapse.
In addition to its 618 kilometers of border with Syria, Iraq shares 335 kilometers with
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
and approximately 1,420 kilometers with Iran.