ISIL capture key Syria-Iraq border crossing

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group have reinforced their self-declared “caliphate” with the capture of the Al-Tanaf to Al-Walid crossing on the Damascus-Baghdad highway.

Al-Walid crossing is the last border crossing with Iraq that was held by the Damascus government. Except for a short section of frontier in the north under Kurdish control, all the rest are now held by ISIL.


ISIL’s advance, which was preceeded by the capture of Anbar capital Ramadi and the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in the past week, comes despite eight months of US-led air strikes aimed at pushing them back.

It has sparked an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians in both countries and raised fears that the ISIL will repeat at Palmyra the destruction they have already wreaked at ancient sites in Iraq.

As ISIL fighters fanned out across Palmyra on Thursday, they went door to door executing suspected loyalists of the Damascus government, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

(Al Jazeera)