Iraq wraps up concrete security barrier on Syria border

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq’s Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday the completion of the concrete wall along the country’s border with Syria, considering the project a major step to strengthen security.

Construction began in 2022 and includes a 160-kilometer stretch in the al-Qaim area of Al-Anbar province, which shares Iraq’s longest border with Syria, with walls rising three meters high.

During a ceremony marking the project’s completion, Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari described the barrier as a “real safety valve” for Iraq against terrorist infiltration and cross-border smuggling.

In January, the Iraqi Armed Forces indicated that the fortification project along the more than 600-kilometer Iraq-Syria frontier was about 80% complete. Iraq has also reinforced the frontier with additional troops, advanced surveillance and logistical equipment, and fixed defensive positions maintained by the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a state-linked coalition of predominantly Shiite armed factions.

The step follows earlier tensions in northeastern Syria, where clashes between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) left dozens killed or wounded and forced thousands of Kurdish families to flee.