Arar ( ar, عرعر ' ) is a border crossing between

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. The nearest town in Saudi Arabia is Arar (ʿArʿar) and the nearest in Iraq is An Nukhayb. The crossing has barracks for Iraqi border guards, a mosque, and offices for processing people crossing the border. The crossing sees a huge spike in traffic during the Hajj as Iraqis cross into Saudi Arabia to visit

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...

Background

On 5 January 2015, the Saudi forces at the crossing were subject to a suicide attack by

ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

. Two guards were killed in the attack. On 18 November 2020, Arar crossing was reopened after 30 years of closure following the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

References

Iraq–Saudi Arabia border crossings {{SaudiArabia-geo-stub