Turkey Said to Be Building Wall along Border with Syria

Turkey has started building a wall on a section of its border with Syria controlled by the Islamic State group on the Syrian side, AP reported on Thursday, citing Turkish news agency Dogan.

The border section stretching through the provinces of Kilis and Gaziantep is about 80 km long. Four-meter high slabs of concrete were being positioned along the border, according to video footage from the area, AP said.

The newswire said that a Turkishgovernment official could not confirm the media report.

AP also recalled that in August Turkey had started building a wall along the border with Syria in the area of the town of Reyhanli, "a main smuggling point southwest of Kilis."

Last week, US President Barack Obama called on Turkey to put more effort into sealing its Syrian border to prevent the Islamic State militants from bringing in foreign fighters and smuggling oil.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has also urged Turkey to tighten control of its border with Syria.

"We all must do more. Turkey must do more to control its often porous border," Carter told a panel in U.S. Congress on December 1, according to todayszaman.com.