Border not a barrier into Iraq

NINEWAH PROVINCE // Efforts to control Iraq’s border with Syria are being undermined by a shortage of manpower and money as well as police collaboration with insurgents, according to officers in the Iraqi security forces.

A critical 400km section of the desert frontier in Ninewah province, northern Iraq, near Mosul, is currently being guarded by a 3,600-man detachment of the Iraqi Border Patrol (IBP). Despite long-running concerns about Islamic militants crossing into Iraq and an ongoing diplomatic crisis between Baghdad and Damascus over claims of Syrian support for insurgents, Iraqi commanders in the area say they remain significantly under resourced.

“We have a shortage of soldiers in the border patrol. We need an extra 700 to 1,000 to be able to do our job properly and they probably need better pay. At the moment a basic border patrol officer earns about US$420 [Dh1,500] a month. It’s not enough,” said Lt Col Rashid Hassan al Raskani, a battalion commander in the IBP in Ninewah.

Corruption is rife in Iraq, with security officials complaining that insurgents routinely bribe their way through checkpoints or out of police custody. Low salaries are partly to blame and reduced Iraqi government budgets, a result of oil prices that have tumbled from just over US$145 (Dh533) a barrel last July to just under $70 now, have done nothing to help the situation.

Lt Col al Raskani, who has served on the Iraq-Syria frontier since 2004, said while the security situation had improved in recent years, foreign Islamic militants were still entering Iraq and carrying out high-casualty attacks.

“No border in the world is totally secure and Iraq’s border with Syria is no different,” he said in an interview. “Every day we conduct patrols and operations and we catch smugglers and terrorists.”

Source: The National, Border not a barrier into Iraq