( RIA Novosti ) - Saudi Arabia is planning to close its border with Iraq to prevent Iraqi militants from entering the Kingdom and to discourage Iraq-bound religious extremists transiting the country, the Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh said Thursday.
The project to build the 900-kilometer (550-mile) "security wall" in 2008, which will run all along the Saudi-Iraqi border, will cost the country over $1 billion.
"The protection line will represent two rows of barbed wire equipped with the newest radars and infrared viewing devices," the newspaper quoted Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki as saying.
He said a tender for the project will be held at the end of this year.