Iraq vows zero tolerance for security threats amid Syria clashes
Shafaq News– Baghdad
Iraq’s Defense Minister Thabet Al-Abbasi on Tuesday stressed that Baghdad will not tolerate “any threat” to national security, including ISIS activity, noting that Iraqi forces retain full control of the Syrian border.
According to a statement from the Defense Ministry, Al-Abbasi said the military’s capabilities and operational planning are “sufficient to confront” any emerging risks amid shifting regional conditions.
The Ministry also confirmed, in a separate statement, that Army Chief of Staff Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah arrived at the Syrian frontier with a senior delegation to evaluate the situation on the ground and inspect units deployed along the border.
Fighting in northeastern Syria between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has raised security concerns for Iraq. Nineveh Governor Abdul Qader Al-Dakhil has described the province’s border with Syria as fully secured through continuous deployments, a position echoed by Iraq’s armed forces, which report that construction of a concrete barrier along the roughly 600-kilometer frontier is about 80 percent complete.
Read more: Syria’s calm: An end to threat or a start of a complex security phase for Iraq?
