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Asharq Al-Awsat (2 November 2018)

Baghdad - Hamza Mustafa

Commander of the Iraqi Army’s Al-Jazira Operations Major General Qassim Mohammed Saleh announced Thursday that his forces are fully securing the Iraqi border with Syria.

His comments came to dissipate fears about the possible infiltration of ISIS remnants into Iraqi territories following the collapse of the Syrian Democratic Forces on the border between the two countries.

“Our borders are fully secured by the Seventh and the Eighth brigades of Al-Jazira Operations Command,” Saleh said in a statement, adding that all Iraqi officers were put on alert to face any ISIS attempt to come close or infiltrate through the international border.

“The army has launched operations in the Western Sahara and Wadi Houran to chase remaining ISIS criminal gangs ... and dormant cells,” he said.

The checkpoints on the Syrian-Iraqi border have been closed since 2014 when ISIS overran large swathes of Iraq.

Security expert Fadel Abu Raghif told Asharq Al-Awsat that ISIS operations on the border between Iraq and Syria or inside Iraqi territories “no longer pose a threat.”

Meanwhile, accurate intelligence reports said three ISIS militants were arrested on Thursday in Anbar province.

In Diyala province, Iraqi police also arrested an ISIS senior leader dubbed the Emir of Arms.

Diyala Police Chief Major General Faisal al-Abadi said a joint security team launched an operation in the Nayrin river basin, during which a special combating force infiltrated 30 kilometers deep in the Hamrin area and started chasing terrorists.

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1446706/iraq-secures-its-borders-syria