Jordan erects barrier on border with Syria and Iraq to stop Islamic State fighters 21208153.

The move is part of Amman's defensive approach to the radical Islamist group, which has seized vast swathes of territory across Iraq and Syria. In January, IS captured a downed Jordanian fighter pilot and burned him to death.

Jordan's King Abdullah II has since vowed to ramp up the fight against the group, which also published a video of the killing.

"The blood of martyr Maaz al-Kassasbeh will not be in vain and the response of Jordan and its army after what happened to our dear son will be severe," the king said in a statement released by the royal court at the time.

Jordan shares a porous 350-kilometers border with Syria and a 175-kilometers border with Iraq, both situated in largely arid, desert terrain.

Jordan is not the first country to protect its borders against IS. Saudi Arabia started building in a sophisticated fence along its northern border to secure the desert kingdom in September 2014. The first phase stretchs for 900 kilometers (560 miles) on the country’s northern frontier.

The Saudi project includes five layers of fencing, reinforced by watch towers, night-vision cameras and radar. The whole project will include eight command and control center, 32 rapid response centers, three rapid intervention squads, 38 back and front gates, 78 monitoring towers, 10 monitoring and surveillance vehicles, 1,450,000 meters of fiber optics networks and 50 radars.