By Anas al-Bar | 2024-03-27

Iran-aligned militias have been ramping up their presence near the Iraq-Syria border, deploying an unspecified number of "new brigades" to the area, local sources and media outlets report.

New clusters of fighters are concentrated in towns near the border in western Iraq, including al-Qaim in Anbar province and Rabia and Sinjar in Ninawa.

The amassment coincides with a tightening of security measures taken by the militias in these areas, which include an increase in the number of checkpoints and patrols on roads and passes leading to the border.

The militias claim their reinforcements aim to support Iraqi security forces in securing the border areas against terrorist infiltration.

But local residents refute these claims, telling Al-Fassel that the real aim is to protect and facilitate smuggling operations.

They said their businesses and daily lives are being disrupted by the militias.

Iraq's border defenses

Iraq's plan to secure its approximately 600km border strip with Syria, launched more than six years ago, is nearing completion, a security source told Al-Fassel.

The plan included erecting several security barriers, notably a 160km concrete wall that is three meters in height, which separates several common border areas to the north of the Euphrates river, where smuggling routes abound.

Border defenses also include trenches and earthen berms, barbed wire, towers, surveillance balloons and thermal cameras.

The border with Syria is "fairly safe," but armed groups affiliated with Iran are working to open pathways across it, an al-Qaim resident told Al-Fassel, on condition that his name not be used.

"The security forces manning the borders are adequate and are carrying out their duties effectively, and the security measures are strong," he said.

"But the militias are continuing to spread out and to impose more restrictions on the population under the pretext of providing assistance in protecting the borders," he added.

The truth is that these groups want to "tighten their control so that they can bring in drugs and smuggle weapons freely," he said.

Displacing local residents

A Ninawa province resident, also speaking to Al-Fassel on condition that his name not be used, revealed that the militias do not provide security for border area residents or fight terrorism as they claim.

"Their new reinforcements are to protect their sources of funding, including the smuggling of drugs and goods and to facilitate their passage from Iraq," he said.

The militias also seek to "further clamp down on residents, restrict their movement and prevent them from earning a living to force them to leave their areas," the source said.

"The militias want to empty the borders of local residents in order to use their lands and homes to store and manufacture weapons and support their terrorist activities," he said.

Armed groups along the border

More than 10 armed groups closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are deployed on the Iraq-Syria border, political analyst Tariq al-Shammari told Al-Fassel.

Kataib Hizbullah is the most powerful and influential among them, he said.

These militias are constantly working to strengthen their presence and influence in the border area, he explained, because they rake in millions of dollars per year from cross-border smuggling.

Their presence in the border area is tied to preserving these illicit revenue streams, he said, especially in light of the near completion of security fortifications and the crackdown on militia-backed smuggler networks.

The border area is of paramount importance to "the regional chaos project that Iran is pursuing," as it is a key node in the "logistical corridor for the transfer of weapons" to Iran-backed militias in Syria and Lebanon, al-Shammari said.

For this reason, he said, Iran wants its proxies to tighten their grip on this area.

Residents of the border area are paying the price for Iran's aggressive ambitions, he added, as they are "deprived of their rights and suffer from poverty and the inability to secure their needs due to the militias' harassment."