Shafaq News– Baghdad
Iraq’s Defense Minister Thabet Al-Abbasi on Tuesday stressedthat Baghdad will not tolerate “any threat” to national security, includingISIS activity, noting that Iraqi forces retain full control of the Syrianborder.
According to a statement from the Defense Ministry, Al-Abbasisaid the military’s capabilities and operational planning are “sufficient toconfront” any emerging risks amid shifting regional conditions.
The Ministry also confirmed, in a separate statement, thatArmy Chief of Staff Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah arrived at the Syrian frontierwith a senior delegation to evaluate the situation on the ground and inspectunits deployed along the border.
Fighting in northeastern Syria between governmentforces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has raised securityconcerns for Iraq. Nineveh Governor Abdul Qader Al-Dakhil has described theprovince’s border with Syria as fully secured through continuous deployments, aposition echoed by Iraq’s armed forces, which report that construction of aconcrete barrier along the roughly 600-kilometer frontier is about 80 percentcomplete.
: Syria’s calm: An end to threat or a start of acomplex security phase for Iraq?
