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QAMISHLI, syria (North Press) – Iraq has accelerated construction of a concrete security/" class="auto-internal-link">security wall along its northwestern border with Syria, a stretch that also marks the frontier with the Kurdistan Region, an Iraqi Border Guard commander stated on Wednesday. The move comes as Baghdad seeks to seal the entirety of the 618-kilometer border following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024 and rising fears of militant infiltration. Brig. Gen.
Haider al-Karkhi, media director for Iraq’s Border Guard Command, informed Rudaw that the project is being carried out in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional administration (KRG). “We are continuing to erect a wall from the Rabia border to Peshkhabur,” he stated, adding that Baghdad’s objective is “to control the entire border of the region. ” Iraq commenced building the three-meter-high concrete barrier two years ago. The system includes prefabricated walls, deep trenches, watchtowers, and fortified monitoring points. as per Karkhi, roughly 350 kilometers have been completed so far, stretching from Rabia in Nineveh Governorate southward toward al-Qaim in western Anbar. Baghdad has stated it intends to wall off the entire frontier. Notably, the 40-kilometer section running between Peshkhabur in Duhok Governorate and Rabia is the main segment now under expansion.
Iraqi authorities have also closed key crossings with Syria and activated a emerging border surveillance center in Baghdad, where 975 thermal cameras and monitoring drones feed live data to security personnel. As of September, Iraqi authorities said 99 percent of the border is under camera surveillance, with drones carrying out daily reconnaissance flights. Baghdad says the stepped-up measures aim to prevent isis militants and sleeper cells from exploiting instability in Syria following Assad’s fall. Iraqi troops are also targeting cross-border drug trafficking networks, including Captagon smuggling, which has surged across the region.
Iraq additionally borders Turkey and Iran, making the syrian/" class="auto-internal-link">syrian frontier one of multiple high-risk areas requiring continuous monitoring, authorities say. By Jwan Shekaki