ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's borders with Syria remain "calm and secure," a high-ranking Iraqi border official said Tuesday, despite reports from regional and Syrian media outlets that Syria's army has entered a state of alert and is deploying units along the country's borders with Iraq amid security concerns.
"The situation along [Iraq's] border with Syria is normal, and the movements on the Syrian side to secure the borders are taking place with our knowledge and in coordination with us," Lieutenant General Mohammed Abdul-Wahab Sakr al-Saeedi, commander of the Border Guard Forces, told the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA).
He further emphasized that "there is no current threat on the borders, and there is an exchange of information and coordination with the Syrian border forces."
The remarks follow reports from regional outlets that Syria's defense ministry has ordered Alert Level C and deployed units along the Iraqi border, amid a widening conflict between the US and Iran and its affiliated armed groups across the region, including in Iraq.
"Our units are holding the border firmly, and the Syrian side has not occupied the border posts so far," Saeedi said.
The Iraq-Syria border, which stretches approximately 600 kilometers, has been at the forefront of numerous conflicts in recent years, most notably the war against the Islamic State (ISIS), which saw extremist militants exploit the border's vulnerability to establish a so-called caliphate spanning the two countries.
The border has also seen several armed groups build underground tunnels to bypass it, transiting personnel, weapons, and narcotics across the frontier.
.png&w=3840&q=75)
