ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq on Monday deployed additional armored units to fortify its international borders, with the interior ministry claiming that the country’s borders with Syria are “impenetrable”, amid heightening tensions in the neighboring country and concerns of the conflict spilling into Iraq.

The Iraqi defense ministry announced fortifying the country’s open borders from Anbar's al-Qaim in the south to the Jordanian border with additional armored units, after reinforcing the northern sector west of Nineveh with armored and mechanized units.

"The fortifications of the Iraqi borders are the best in the history since the establishment of the Iraqi state borders," Interior Ministry spokesperson Miqdad Miri told reporters on Monday, adding that they have positive readings for the future.

Miri said that relevant authorities over the past two years have made great strides in fortifying Iraq’s international borders, which extends 3,719 kilometers with six neighboring countries, adding that the borders with Syria are “the most secured.”

“Our borders with Syria are secure and there is no fear regarding these borders, and there is no comparison between the state of the borders in 2014 and today, as there is a great intelligence effort from all agencies to support the current operations,” said Border Forces Commander Mohammed al-Su’aidi during the press conference.

Iraq’s borders with Syria extends 618 kilometers. Haider al-Karkhi, spokesperson for the Iraqi border forces told The New Region on Saturday that Iraq has a 210-kilometer-long concrete wall along the borders with Syria, reinforced with trench, a sand barrier, and two different layers of barbed wires, adding that they are working on extending the wall.

Syrian opposition armed groups, led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), launched a surprise offensive against the Syrian army in Aleppo and Idlib countryside on Wednesday, triggering one of the bloodiest escalations in the Syrian civil war in years. The clashes have claimed the lives of over 400 people in less than a week, according to a war monitor.

Iraqi officials have voiced concern over the escalations and their repercussions on Iraq.

The opposition's self-proclaimed Syrian Salvation Government on Sunday issued a statement assuring the people and government of Iraq that they do not pose a threat to Iraq or other countries in the region, adding that they are committed to strengthening "brotherly ties" with neighboring Iraq and working toward shared interests, which it said required “continued cooperation and understanding” between the two sides.