ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq is building a concrete wall along its border with Syria, a security official confirmed to AFP on Sunday as the hundreds of kilometers long border is mired by security threats due to attempted Islamic State (ISIS) infiltrations.
A wall around “a dozen kilometers long and 3.5 meters high” was built in Shingal in western Nineveh province in the “first stage” of construction, the senior official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
The step aims to "put a stop to the infiltration” of ISIS into the Iraqi territory, the official added.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, with a ground network in Syria on Sunday said “Iraqi forces have begun building a concrete wall along the entire border.”
Iraq announced its intention to build a concrete wall and a military barrier along its border with Syria earlier in March.
"There is an intention to build a wall on the border, but the existing fortifications provide the necessary security," the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army for Operations Qais al-Mohammedawi said at the time.
Iraq shares an extensive border with Syria, one which spans over 600-kilometers.
ISIS attempted to break thousands of its affiliates and members from Ghweran prison in the Kurdish-controlled Hasaka province in northeast Syria (Rojava) in January, marking the most significant offensive since the terror group’s so-called caliphate was defeated in Syria.
The violence sparked fears of ISIS re-emerging in Iraq as several prisoners are thought to have escaped.
A US military official told Rudaw that Iraqi and Kurdish border guards are capable of preventing ISIS members from crossing the Iraqi-Syrian border.
ISIS controlled swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territories in 2014 but it was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
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