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Iraq’s PMF Reinforces Deployment on Border with Syria 

A PMF vehicle is seen near the Iraqi-Syrian border. (Security media)
A PMF vehicle is seen near the Iraqi-Syrian border. (Security media)
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Iraq’s PMF Reinforces Deployment on Border with Syria 

A PMF vehicle is seen near the Iraqi-Syrian border. (Security media)
A PMF vehicle is seen near the Iraqi-Syrian border. (Security media)

The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq announced that their forces have deployed in new areas near the border with Syria.

Army commander Amir Rashid Yarallah also toured the border area in western Nineveh near Syria.

No reason was given for the reinforcements, but they took places a day after fierce fighting on the Lebanese-Syrian border and four days after Baghdad announced the killing of the head of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The US Central Command said Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija,” was killed in Iraq’s Anbar province in an operation in cooperation with Iraqi intelligence and security forces.

Iraqi authorities have tightened border security since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December to prevent the infiltration of gunmen and members of ISIS to the country.

The PMF said its new reinforcements are in line with a deployment plan launched by the Nineveh operations command to boost security and stability in the area.

Forces are equipped with medium and heavy weapons and they will monitor the border to protect the country against any possible threat, it added.

Field sources in al-Anbar said they did not detect any unusual military activity near the border with Syria.

Also on Tuesday, the PMF stated that it did not record any security breach along the border with Syria.

Anbar operations commander Qassem Mosleh told the Iraqi News Agency that his forces are highly trained and armed. Effective cooperation is ongoing with all security agencies, including the army and police.

Moreover, he highlighted the high coordination with tribes in the area that have provided information about ISIS terrorist gangs.

Foreign Miniter Fuad Hussein had received in Baghdad last week his Syrian counterpart Asaad al-Shaibani for talks on “joint security challenges”.

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Syria Announces Commissions for Missing Persons, Transitional Justice

A police vehicle of the interim Syrian government moves through a street by the Saha Mosque in Palmyra in central Syria on February 7, 2025. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
A police vehicle of the interim Syrian government moves through a street by the Saha Mosque in Palmyra in central Syria on February 7, 2025. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
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Syria Announces Commissions for Missing Persons, Transitional Justice

A police vehicle of the interim Syrian government moves through a street by the Saha Mosque in Palmyra in central Syria on February 7, 2025. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
A police vehicle of the interim Syrian government moves through a street by the Saha Mosque in Palmyra in central Syria on February 7, 2025. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

Syria on Saturday announced the formation of a national commission for missing persons and another for transitional justice, more than five months after the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.
Syria's new authorities have pledged justice for victims of atrocities committed under Assad's rule, and a five-year transitional constitution signed in March provided for the formation of a transitional justice commission, AFP said.

The fate of tens of thousands of detainees and others who went missing remains one of the most harrowing legacies of Syria's conflict, which erupted in 2011 when Assad's forces brutally repressed anti-government protests, triggering more than a decade of war.

A decree signed by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and released by the presidency announced the formation of an independent "national commission for missing persons".

The body is tasked with "researching and uncovering the fate of the missing and forcibly disappeared, documenting cases, establishing a national database and providing legal and humanitarian support to their families".

A separate decree announced the formation of a national commission for transitional justice to "uncover the truth about the grave violations caused by the former regime".

That commission should hold those responsible to account "in coordination with the relevant authorities, remedy the harm to victims, and firmly establish the principles of non-recurrence and national reconciliation", according to the announcement.

The decree noted "the need to achieve transitional justice as a fundamental pillar for building a state of law, guaranteeing victims' rights and achieving comprehensive national reconciliation".

Both bodies will have "financial and administrative independence" and act over all of Syrian territory, according to the decrees signed by Sharaa.

In December, the opposition factions toppled Assad after five decades of his family's iron-fisted rule and nearly 14 years of brutal war that killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more.

Tens of thousands of people were detained and tortured in the country's jails, while Assad has been accused of using chemical weapons against his own people.

Rights groups, activists and the international community have repeatedly emphasized the importance of transitional justice in the war-torn country.

In March, Sharaa signed into force a constitutional declaration for a five-year transitional period.

It stipulated that during that period, a "transitional justice commission" would be formed to "determine the means for accountability, establish the facts, and provide justice to victims and survivors" of the former government's misdeeds.

This week, prominent Syrian human rights lawyer Mazen Darwish told AFP that lasting peace in Syria depended on the country building a strong judicial system giving justice to the victims of all crimes committed during the Assad era.