Syrian border gaps to be closed within two months: security spokesperson

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraq will be intensifying observance on the Iraqi-Syrian border to prevent Islamic State (ISIS) infiltrations in coordination with the international coalition, Iraq’s Security Media Cell said on Saturday.

“The Operations Command is working with the international coalition, receiving modern equipment, to monitor the Iraqi-Syrian borders, prevent violations and infiltration of terrorist elements,” Joint Operations Command spokesperson Major General Tahseen al-Khafaji said in a statement.

“All gaps in the Syrian borders will be closed within the next two months,” he added.

Despite coordination and cooperation between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Iraqi army to carry out military operations on the Syria-Iraq border and capture ISIS remnants, the terror group has been able to smuggle fighters and weapons through the border in recent years.

Coalition spokesperson Colonel Wayne Marotto announced on Friday that 37 operations have been carried out against ISIS in Iraq and Syria since the beginning of May, preventing 11 leaders and 59 of their followers from carrying out terrorist acts.

The group is particularly active in the border province of Deir ez-Zor, where members of the SDF are often targeted.

The SDF launched an operation to capture ISIS militants on the Iraq-Syria border on May 10, in cooperation with the coalition air forces. One of the goals of the four-day military operation was to control the smuggling of weapons and fighters through the border areas.

In February, security forces said nearly 100 ISIS militants had crossed the border into Nineveh province in the space of one week.

ISIS militants continue to wreak havoc in both Iraq and Syria, despite being territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017 and in Syria in March 2019. The militants remain a threat on both sides of the border, carrying out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions.

On Monday, Iraqi forces announced the arrest of two ISIS militants crossing the border from Syria after they were detected with thermal cameras. One of them was responsible for planting booby-traps in the town of Baaj in Nineveh province, and the other was a so-called leader of raid forces and “participated in the captivity of the Yazidis.”