Satellite images reveal: Iran building border crossing to smuggle weapons

New strategic border crossing being built at the al-Bukamal crossing between Iraq and Syria

Iran is building a border crossing between Iraq and Syria that will allow the smuggling of weapons new satellite images have revealed, raising concerns that it could could expedite the transfer of weapons from Tehran to groups like Hezbollah.

The images, taken by ImageSat International (ISI) this past week, allegedly shown construction activity of permanent infrastructure 2.6 kms west of the official Al Bukamal Al-Qaim border crossing between the two countries.

While the border crossing has been inactive, the area is under the control of pro-Iranian Shiite militias who are handled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corp’s Quds force and have been putting in work and resources into building a new active one.

In one image a new wide square measuring 270×165 meters has been under construction for the past three months and will probably be used as a storage compound for vehicles, equipment and possibly weapons.

(photo credit: IMAGESAT INTERNATIONAL (ISI))

A neighboring structure was said to have been built at the end of 2018.

In another image a site is seen flattened inside a compound probably controlled by Iran’s Shiite militias. The site was bombed on June 18 2018 and debris has since been removed. Two weeks later an Iranian intelligence delegation and the deputy leader from the Iraqi Shiite Popular Mobilization Committee militia Abu Mahdi Muhandis visited the site.

The new infrastructures, which cross the border, will probably serve to transfer equipment, civilian as well as military, such as weapons.

According to ISI’s assessment, “tithout Syrian supervision, Iranian allies in Lebanon and Syria such as Hezbollah get a logistic channel, run by the Shiite militias and Iran,” ISI said, adding that “the foundation is part of the Iranian effort to establish the 1200 km length land bridge from Tehran to the Mediterranean.”

Both Israel and the US have warned that Iran and their proxy militias are the biggest threats to peace in the region and hope to weaken Iran’s growing influence across the Middle East and Persian Gulf.

Considered as the head of a snake, Israel has warned repeatedly that it would not allow for an Iranian presence in Syria and has admitted to hundreds of airstrikes to prevent the transfer of weapons such as ammunition to surface-to-air missile kits to Hezbollah in Lebanon the entrenchment of its forces on the Golan.

It is believed that Iran will attempt to entrench itself in Iraq, a mainly Shia Muslim country, as it did in Syria where they have managed to establish, shape and consolidate a solid parallel security structure in the country.

While there have been no reports of strikes in Iraq attributed to Israel, the Jewish State is reported to be behind an airstrike on the Syrian-Iraqi border last year near Al-Bukamal which killed 22 members of a Shiite militia.

Iraqi troops have been working with the Hashd al-Shaabi (also known as Popular Mobilization Forces) militia fighters in the fight against IS militants in the country. The PMF, militias who were incorporated into Iraq’s security apparatus in 2016 to fight against the Islamic State group along with Iraqi and Kurdish forces, are directly financed and equipped by Iran.