By Anas al-Bar | 2025-02-13

Iraqi police and army reinforcements are flowing to the frontier with Syria to safeguard the country against any potential terrorist threat emerging from Syria following the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Additional security and combat units, supported by armored vehicles and heavy weapons, have been positioned at the border, along with intelligence and logistical support forces.

The deployment is concentrated near al-Qaim, extending south of the Euphrates River in an area where a security vacuum still exists on the Syrian side.

In a January interview with Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath, Iraqi Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari said Syrian police stations are now "totally unmanned."

The al-Qaim-Albu Kamal crossing is "currently closed and left for use only in cases of emergency," he said.

As the Syrian regime withdrew from its positions along the border to the south of al-Qaim following the opposition advance, Iraq rushed to prevent the situation from getting out of hand.

Al-Shammari said the border reinforcements also extend to the north of the Euphrates River to the area controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the Syrian side.

He said his forces coordinate with the SDF through the international coalition, and have "contact and follow-up points" to secure the border, which stretches for more than 600km, against terrorist infiltration and drug smuggling.

International partners

Iraq is working with international partners to contain the threat the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) poses to its stability and to regional security.

It is essential to keep the threat of terrorism at bay in the Iraqi-Syrian border area, security and strategy expert Ahmed al-Shareefi told Al-Fassel.

The measures and precautionary actions Iraq is taking today are necessary to keep its borders secure in light of the political change and security tensions on the Syrian side, he said.

He also stressed the importance of continuing the coordination and close relations with the United States, as its role and military presence in Iraq and Syria represent a fundamental pillar in the war on ISIS.

US bases in Ain al-Asad in Iraq and al-Hasakeh, Kharab al-Jir and al-Tanf in Syria are providing military support and aerial reconnaissance to Iraq and to the SDF to curb terrorist activity, he said.

This helps to prevent ISIS elements from forming cells in the Iraqi borderlands and Syria's eastern desert (Badiya), he said.

US forces also help to corral the most dangerous challenge to Iraq and the region, al-Shareefi said, represented by about 10,000 "dangerous terrorist elements" held in SDF prisons under tight security guard.

This is in addition to al-Hol camp in al-Hasakeh, which houses thousands of families of ISIS elements and has been described as a hotbed for radicalization and extremist recruitment.