Baghdad has deployed anti-terror forces to its border with Iraq to prevent extremist armed groups allied with HTS from infiltrating the country
News Desk - The Cradle
According to informed sources who spoke with the Iraqi News Agency (INA), the discussions “were security-related and focused on related files.”
“The Iraqi delegation discussed with the new Syrian administration border protection and cooperation in preventing the return of ISIS … as well as protecting prisons that house ISIS gangs inside Syrian territory,” INA reported, adding that the delegation from Baghdad “also presented Iraq's visions and requests regarding respecting minorities and holy shrines.”
According to a senior member of the State of Law Coalition, a Shia-majority political party allied with the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Baghdad's decision to send an official delegation to Syria and engage with the de facto authorities came “under pressure from both the United States and Gulf states.”
“[Iraqi] Prime Minister [Mohammed Shia al-] Sudani only took this step after consulting and obtaining approval from political blocs and parties, particularly from the Shia Coordination Framework and the State of Law Coalition. While there was support for the visit, external pressures played a significant role in the decision,” Lawmaker Issam al-Kreiti told Shafaq News.
The delegation led by INIS chief Shatri reportedly outlined Iraq's “red lines” to the former Al-Qaeda commanders who make up the bulk of Syria's “transitional government.”
“Al-Shatri will inform the new Syrian administration that there is a real fear in Iraq of the possibility of ISIS elements escaping or smuggling from the prisons of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are close to the Iraqi border,” Shafaq News reported earlier on Thursday.
About 10,000 ISIS fighters are imprisoned in dozens of makeshift prison camps under the control of the SDF in US-occupied northeast Syria.
Kurdish authorities and US officials recently warned that a Turkish-backed offensive east of Aleppo against SDF positions “threatens” the security of these prisons.
“I usually hate this cliche, but this is the closest thing we have to a ticking time bomb,” an unnamed US official told POLITICO earlier this month. “If [Turkiye] doesn’t get these attacks on the [Syrian Democratic Forces] halted, we could have a massive jailbreak on our hands.”
PMU forces were recently deployed to the Syrian border to prevent infiltration by extremist groups allied with HTS. In a statement this week, the PMU media bureau announced that its troops were sent to reinforce the border as part of the Nineveh Sector Operations, which are part of efforts to secure the Iraqi–Syrian border.
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