SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia tightens security along its border with Iraq after ISIL gains
Record ID:
189841
SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia tightens security along its border with Iraq after ISIL gains
- Title: SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia tightens security along its border with Iraq after ISIL gains
- Date: 16th July 2014
- Summary: ARAR, SAUDI ARABIA (JULY 14, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SAUDI BORDER GUARD STANDING BEHIND MACHINE GUN ATOP VEHICLE, PATROLLING THE SAUDI NORTHERN BORDER WITH IRAQ BORDER FENCE ROAD SIGN READING IN ARABIC: "BORDER AREA - ENTRY FORBIDDEN" VARIOUS OF SAUDI BORDER GUARDS PATROLLING AND DRIVING TOWARDS AREA HIT BY MISSILES LAUNCHED FROM IRAQ BORDER GUARD SHOWING THE CRATER FROM ROCKETS THAT LANDED ALONG THE BORDER REGION VARIOUS OF SENIOR OFFICER SHOWING SHRAPNEL FROM THE ROCKET SENIOR OFFICER EXPLAINING THE DIRECTION OF THE ROCKET LAUNCH SENIOR OFFICER SHOWING AND EXPLAINING SAUDI ARABIA'S BORDER AREA WITH IRAQ BORDER GUARDS PATROL VEHICLES DRIVING BORDER GUARD DRIVER VARIOUS OF BORDER GUARD SHOWING MARKS OF A ROCKET WHICH FELL AT JUDAIDAT ARAR HOUSING COMPOUND BORDER GUARDS CENTRE AT SAUDI BORDER WITH IRAQ VARIOUS OF BORDER GUARD OFFICER OBSERVING THE SECURITY FENCE ON BORDER WITH IRAQ (SOUNDBITE) (English) SENIOR OFFICER SHOWING THE IRAQI BORDER GUARD CENTRES AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SECURITY FENCE, SAYING (IN ENGLISH): "Now we're in the Saudi's police station. This is the border with Iraq. Over there we have the Iraqi police station, and on the other side we have another Iraqi police station there." IRAQI BORDER GUARD STATION SIGN READING (IN ARABIC): "ROAD TO JUDAIDAT ARAR - ROAD TO IRAQ" SECURITY CROSSING GATE INTO IRAQ TWO SAUDI BORDER GUARDS WITH MACHINE GUN GUARDING THE SECURITY FENCE WITH IRAQ SECURITY FENCE WITH IRAQ SAUDI BORDER GUARD LOOKING OUT FROM THE KINGDOM'S LAST FRONTIER OVER FEW HUNDRED METERS OF NO-MAN`S LAND TOWARDS AN IRAQI CHECK POINT VARIOUS OF IRAQI BORDER GUARD AT A CHECK POINT OVER FEW HUNDRED METERS OF NO-MAN`S LAND THE SAUDI CHECK POINT VARIOUS OF SAUDI BORDER GUARD TAKING POSITION BEHIND CEMENT BLOCKS AND SAND BAGS AT THE KINGDOM'S LAST FRONTIER OVER FEW HUNDRED METERS OF NO-MAN`S LAND TOWARDS AN IRAQI CHECK POINT PAN FROM BORDER GUARD WITH MACHINE GUN GUARDING THE CHECK POINT TO LARGE POSTER WITH PICTURE OF SAUDI KING AND CROWN PRINCE
- Embargoed: 31st July 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Saudi Arabia
- Country: Saudi Arabia
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA4D7YTUBOBVJ94A9OR2GR3ORKF
- Story Text: Saudi Arabia has tightened security along its border with Iraq after ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) declared a caliphate last month. The group now calling itself the Islamic State rampaged across the border between Syria and Iraq a month ago declaring a caliphate across a swathe of the Middle East from the Aleppo to the outskirts of Baghdad.
But if its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has proclaimed himself ruler of all the world's Muslims, has his eyes on extending his caliphate south, he will face a far more formidable frontier at the border with Saudi Arabia.
Since the group launched its lightning offensive last month in Iraq, Riyadh has sent thousands of troops to the border area.
They are beefing up a frontier already protected by a series of earthworks and fences forming an exclusion zone stretching 10 kilometres deep into Saudi territory. Its entire 850-km length is scanned by radar and infrared video cameras, monitored around the clock at a control room.
Last month King Abdullah pledged to take "all measures" to protect Saudi Arabia, both from Sunni ISIL, which Saudi Arabia has labelled a terrorist organisation, and also from Shi'ite militia in Iraq who have mobilised to fight the insurgents.
At least 1,000 army soldiers, 1,000 national guardsmen and three helicopter units had arrived to reinforce the border area near the town of Arar since ISIL's advance in June, General Faleh al-Subai'i, commander of Saudi border guards in the area, told visiting reporters this week.
Saudi officials have not made public the total number of extra troops they have sent to the frontier, so far declining to comment on the accuracy of a report by Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television which put the number of reinforcements at 30,000.
Although alarmed by ISIL's advance, border officials describe the Shi'ite militia - allied to the government in Baghdad and to Saudi Arabia's enemy Iran - as the bigger threat.
Such views infuriate Baghdad, which accuses Riyadh of doing too little to stop ISIL fighters who pride themselves in killing Shi'ite civilians.
Riyadh strongly denies it has helped ISIL, and its state media and clerics preach against the group, but it has openly supported other Sunni militant groups fighting in Syria, and hundreds of Saudi nationals are believed to have joined ISIL. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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