Iran, Iraq Launch Joint Military drill To Secure Border

Iranian and Iraqi forces are conducting a joint military drill started near the border with Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, temporarily closing two major border gates with the Kurdish Region.

“Iraqi and Iranian units began exercises at 11:00 am (0800 GMT) with tanks and infantry only 250 metres (yards) from the border,” Shwan Abu Bakr, the Kurdish customs chief at the Bashmakh border post, told AFP.

The Iranian military on its website announced joint military exercises with units of the Iraqi army involving armour and artillery units as well as drones and other aviation.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Iraq’s Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi are involved in the military exercise, radaw.net reports.

Iraq’s defense ministry stated Friday that it was coordinating with neighboring countries to implement Iraq’s “constitutional authority” over land and air borders, hours after a government ban on international flights to and from the Kurdistan Region came into force.