Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Iraq delays general election to Oct 10

1575269
1575269
minus
plus

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s cabinet decided on Tuesday to postpone the general election to October 10 from June, the state news agency INA said.


The elections been brought forward to June 6, roughly a year early, following a proposal by Iraq’s Independent High Election Commission (IHEC), which wanted more time to organise the polls.


Early elections were a key demand of anti-government protesters who staged mass demonstrations that started in October 2019. Hundreds were killed by security forces and gunmen suspected of links to fighter groups.


Meanwhile, Iraq is tightening security along its 600 km border with Syria to curb the movement of IS fighters, drug smuggling and other illegal activities.


Iraqi commanders on Monday toured the remote desert frontier controlled by various different forces, including the Iraqi military, militias, the Syrian army, anti-Damascus rebels and US-backed Kurdish forces.


The border is a flashpont for tension between groups and the United States, and is also tense because of IS incursions and Turkish pressure on Kurdish fighter groups.


At an outpost facing into Syria, Lieutenant-General Abdul Amir al Shammari said the Iraqi side was under the control of state forces and was being more tightly secured, but that the main challenges came from inside Syria.


“One of the biggest challenges is there’s no one single or unified security partner on the Syrian side’’, he said.


“In this area, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are across the border — whom we coordinate with via the (US) coalition’’, he said, referring to US-backed, Kurdish-dominated paramilitaries battling IS remnants and also opposed to Turkey.


“Further south, there’s the Syrian army, and in some areas beyond that, control by Syrian opposition groups’’, Shammari said.


Iraq was stepping up use of high-tech thermal cameras and observation balloons, he said.


Reuters reporters touring the border by air with the military saw diggers making deeper trenches along large sections of the Iraqi side of the frontier, which is sparsely peppered with border guard towers, earth berms and metal fences. Shammari said some families of IS fighters had recently been detained after crossing from Al Hol, a displacement camp on the Syrian side housing tens of thousands of people who fled IS’s final enclaves.


Officials worry Al Hol is a breeding ground for extremism and fear the return of thousands of Iraqis with ties to IS.


The border has recently also seen Israeli air strikes against targets including Revolutionary Guards commanders as Israel increases pressure on allies and of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.


The Iraqi military is in the difficult position of coordinating with state paramilitaries that include the groups which are facing off with Israel and the United States and transfer weapons and personnel across the frontier. — Reuters


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon