REUTERS/ ANADOLU Turkish President Erdogan has vowed to build a wall along the borders of Iran and Iraq

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The Turkish president said Ankara plans to build walls along its borders with southern neighbours Iraq and Iran in addition to the wall currently being built along the Syrian border. Construction is well underway on the wall along the Turkey-Syria border with 403 miles of the wall already completed. The wall will stretch the distance of the 566 mile border as Turkey bids to protect its national borders and boost security.

We’ll do the same along the Iraqi border and in appropriate places along the Iranian border President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Work on the Syria wall started in 2014 with Ankara determined to stop ISIS militants, illegal immigrants and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters from entering Turkey. A ceasefire between the Turkish state and the PKK broke down in July 2015 with violence gripping the region. Announcing plans for the Iraq and Iran border walls, Mr Erdogan said: “We’ll do the same along the Iraqi border and in appropriate places along the Iranian border.”

It is thought the Iran wall will stretch 43 miles with towers, iron fences and round-the-clock surveillance installed along the remaining border. One official told Hurriyet Daily News: “The PKK has the Maku, Dambat, Navur, Kotr, Keneresh and Sehidan camps inside Iran near the Turkish border. There are some 800-1,000 PKK terrorists in those camps. "They enter Turkey, carry out attacks and leave… As a precaution against this, we are going to build a wall along 70 kilometers of the border near Agrı and [the eastern province of] Igdir.”

GETTY President Erdogan said he wants to replicate the Syrian border wall along Turkey's southern borders

Security officials are said to believe large numbers of PKK militants are hiding out in the Qandil Mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkey's military killed six members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes in northern Iraq on Thursday, the army said in a statement. Turkish warplanes hit the Avasin-Basyan region in northern Iraq, killing PKK militants believed to be in preparation of an attack, the military said.

GETTY Construction is well underway on the wall along the Turkey-Syria border

ANADOLU Work on the Turkey-Syria wall started in 2014

The PKK, which has carried out a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, has camps in the mountains of northern Iraq, near the Turkish border. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. A ceasefire between the Turkish state and the PKK broke down in July 2015 and the southeast subsequently saw some of the worst violence since the PKK launched its insurgency in 1984.

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