ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq said on Friday that it has extended its concrete wall along the Syrian border amid political and security uncertainty in the neighboring country.
“The border forces have successfully added 83 kilometers to the concrete wall along the Syrian border through self-reliant efforts, saving both time and financial costs,” Miqdad Miri, the spokesperson for Iraq's Interior Ministry, said in a statement published by state media.
Iraq has been shoring up its border with Syria for several years as it combats terrorism and the drug trade.
Baghdad shut the border last month when the regime of its ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled by rebels. The Iraqi government deployed troops to the border, but said it would maintain ties with Damascus.
Tahseen al-Khafaji, chief of the Iraqi military’s Security Media Cell, said on Tuesday that relevant ministries “have implemented strict measures that have enabled us to secure the border with Syria for more than three years now."
He explained that the plan is to build a 615 kilometre-long concrete wall along the Syrian border and that 400 kilometres have been completed.
The project is expected to be finished in mid 2025, effectively “closing any remaining security gaps on the border,” according to Khafaji.
Last year, Iraq seized over six tons of drugs and arrested more than 14,000 suspects on drug-related charges, the counter-narcotics directorate announced on Saturday.
About 90% of the narcotics smuggled into Iraq is Captagon coming in across its western border with Syria. That trade had dramatically dropped since the fall of Assad.
“Drug smuggling operations across the border have completely decreased and there is no entry of drugs into Iraq,” Turki Muhammad Khalaf, district mayor of al-Qaim, recently told Rudaw.
Al-Qaim district, in Iraq’s western Anbar province, is adjacent to al-Bukamal in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province.
The Islamic State (ISIS) sleeper cells are believed to be active in the border area. The group seized control of swathes of Syrian and Iraqi land in 2014. Despite its territorial defeat in 2019, it continues to carry out hit-and-run attacks against security forces, especially in areas where there is a security vacuum.
