Saudi Arabia places 30,000 soldiers on its border in the wake of ISIS threat

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2679069/Saudi-Arabia-places-30-000-soldiers-border-wake-ISIS-threat-2-500-Iraqi-soldiers-quit-posts-boundary.html
Saudi Arabia places 30,000 soldiers on its border in the wake of ISIS threat 'after 2,500 Iraqi soldiers quit their posts'

• King Abdullah orders all necessary measures to stop an invasion by ISIS
  
• Sends thousands of troops to border after Iraqis apparently abandon posts
  
• Saudi Arabia shares 500-mile border with Iraq, where militants have seized numerous towns and cities in campaign to establish a caliphate
  
• ISIS has urged Muslims to join militants so it can expand territory it controls
  
• Later Iraq's government denied soldiers fled - claiming border is still manned
  
• This is despite video purporting to show border guards explaining they left on the unexplained orders of Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
  

By JOHN HALL

PUBLISHED: 05:05 EST, 3 July 2014 | UPDATED: 14:52 EST, 3 July 2014

Saudi Arabia has placed 30,000 soldiers on its northern border after 2,500 Iraqi soldiers reportedly quit their posts, leaving the country open to the threat of a lightning advance by ISIS militants.

King Abdullah ordered all necessary measures to protect the kingdom against potential 'terrorist threats' as the possibility of ISIS taking yet more territory in the Middle East appeared to increase.

Saudi Arabia - which is the world's top oil exporter - shares a 500-mile border with Iraq, where Sunni insurgents have seized numerous towns and cities in a campaign to establish an Islamic state which has been condemned as too brutal even by Al-Qaeda.

Iraq's government later denied that its forces had abandoned their posts, claiming the border is operating as usual - despite the emergence of footage purporting to show border guards explaining they left on the orders from the administration of Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

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Threat: ISIS has taken a large amount of territory in Iraq and Syria, as this map shows. Militants are already highly active in southern Iraq - particularly around the border with Jordan - so moving to overrun the border with Saudi Arabia is not an unrealistic tactic, especially if it is currently unmanned






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Concern: Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah ordered all necessary measures to protect the kingdom against potential 'terrorist threats' as the possibility of ISIS taking territory in the country appeared to increase








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Abandoned: 2,500 Iraqi soldiers are believed to have quit their posts on the Saudi border yesterday, leaving the world's biggest oil producer open to the threat of a lightning advance by ISIS militants (pictured)








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Flee: Dubai-based news organisation al-Arabiya published a video (pictured) purporting to show some 2,500 Iraqi soldiers in the desert area east of the Iraqi city of Karbala after pulling back from the Saudi border








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Freedom: Turkish lorry drivers kidnapped by ISIS were freed by the Islamist militants today. The group were abducted from a power plant in the Gyarah region of Iraq on June 10








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It is not yet known why the group of Turkish lorry drivers were released by ISIS, who held them for almost a month after taking control of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq



Dubai-based news organisation al-Arabiya said that Saudi troops fanned into the border region after Iraqi government forces apparently abandoned positions, leaving the Saudi frontiers unprotected.

ISIS gained huge tracts of land and effectively erased the border between Syria and Iraq in a similar Iraqi withdrawal last month, prompting fears that parts of Saudi Arabia could now fall to the militants.

 
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