Saudi Arabia expands its border zone with Iraq

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has expanded a buffer zone along its northern border with Iraq, where a US-led military coalition is bombing IS (IS) extremists, official media said on Tuesday.

Mohammed Al Fahimi, a spokesman for northern region border guards, said "the depth of the border has been increased by 20 kilometres", the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Officers guarding the frontier "called on residents and citizens to stay away from the border areas", it added, without clarifying the previous depth of the border zone.

In early September, the kingdom inaugurated a multilayered fence, backed by radar and other surveillance tools, along its northern borders.

The project is part of efforts to secure the kingdom's desert frontiers against infiltrators and smugglers, state media reported at the time.

Saudi Arabia shares a boundary of 800 kilometres with Iraq.

In July 2009, Riyadh signed a deal with European aerospace and defence contractors EADS to build a high-tech security fence along thousands of kilometres of the kingdom's borders, not only in the north.

Since September, Saudi Arabia has been part of the US-led coalition bombing IS group extremists in Syria.

Saudi Arabia has not, however, participated in strikes on IS in Iraq where the Sunni extremists have also seized territory.