Iraq constructing wall along border with Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Iraqi military source said on Sunday that Iraq is building a concrete wall along part of its border with Syria to stop militants of Islamic State (ISIS) from infiltrating.
A senior officer told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that in the “first stage” of construction, a wall around “a dozen kilometers (seven miles) long and 3.5 meters (11 feet) high was built in Nineveh province”, in Sinjar (Shengal), northwest Iraq.
Iraq seeks to “put a stop to the infiltration of ISIS members” into its territory, the source added.
ISIS lost its final stronghold in Syria in March 2019. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with the support of the US-led Global Coalition, defeated ISIS after fierce battles in the town of Baghouz in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor, bringing an end to the so-called caliphate declared by the terrorist ISIS.
After Baghouz, thousands of ISIS fighters were transferred to prisons, while their families were transferred to Hawl and Roj camps in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES)-held areas.