Saudi Arabia deployed 30,000 troops to the country’s border with Iraq Thursday, according to Reuters.
Iraqi forces withdrew from the area, leaving both Syrian and Saudi frontiers without security, Dubai-based Al Arabiya reported on its website.
A video aired on the Arabic TV channel showed some 2,500 Iraqi soldiers in the east of Karbala after an order to abandon their posts, although the recording has not been verified.
Saudi Arabia shares a 500-mile border with Iraq where militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) declared an “Islamic caliphate” earlier this week.
