Iraq building fence on Syrian border to block jihadists

BAGHDAD — Iraq is building a fence along its border with Syria to stop jihadists from the Islamic State terror group from crossing into the country, a border guards spokesman says Sunday.

“Ten days ago we started to set up a barbed wire security fence with surveillance towers along the border with Syria,” says Anwar Hamid Nayef, spokesman in Iraq’s Anbar province.

The frontier barrier includes a six-meter-wide trench and involves thermal cameras and drones scanning the border for jihadists attempting to cross from Syria.

Baghdad declared victory over IS at the end of last year, but the group holds pockets of territory in the vast deserts of eastern Syria and maintains its ability to strike inside Iraq.

The new fence so far runs for 20 kilometers (12 miles) north from the area around the border town of Al-Qaim, which Iraqi forces retook from IS in November.

In total the frontier stretches for some 600 kilometers.

Border spokesman Nayef says that experts from Baghdad’s ministry of defense and an anti-IS coalition spearheaded by the United States would come “to evaluate the effectiveness of the fence.”

“If they approve the installations, we will continue along the whole border with Syria,” he says.

— AFP

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