RIYADH – The chain-link fences, topped with coils of barbed wire, rise and fall such as a serpent’s back across the desert scrubland between Saudi Arabia and the jihadist threat across the Iraqi border.
A double-fence system and complementary hi-tech surveillance tools, officially opened in September, have become the front line of efforts to protect the kingdom from Islamic State (IS) group extremists who have seized vast areas of Iraq as well as Syria.
“As you know, the terrorists are the biggest threat,” said border guards Major Mohammed al-Rashidi, a supervisor at Judaidat Arar command and control centre where officers monitor radar and cameras about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the frontier.
That threat became painfully clear in January when three border guards including a local commander were killed in nearby Suwayf in a battle with “terrorists”.
The attack followed the launch in September of the kingdom’s air strikes on IS targets in Syria as part of a US-led coalition.
