Iraq tightens security on borders with neighboring countries over IS threat

Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – A well-placed military official has uncovered an Iraqi plan to tighten security measures on the country’s borders with all neighboring countries, particularly with Syria, to foil any possible infiltration attempt by Islamic State (IS) remnants.

Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah told the semi-official al-Sabah newspaper on Sunday that the Iraqi government had spent a huge amount of funds to install surveillance cameras on Iraq’s borderline with neighboring countries to spot the Islamic State militants seeking infiltration into Iraq again following the group’s defeat at the hands of Iraqi soldiers earlier in December.

However, Yarallah warned that the Islamic State group still “has sleeper cells in Iraq, making the war against its remnants take more time to eradicate them completely.”

“The war against IS remnants is still going on,” he said, adding that it is important now to spread awareness about misleading thoughts spread by the Islamic State militants in Iraq after the country announced victory over them militarily.

Iraq declared victory over Islamic State militants and the recapture of all of the group’s strongholds in December, but forces continue to hunt for remnant militants hiding at desert areas.

Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria.