Ramadi: Sunni militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took control of an Iraq-Syria border crossing after Syrian rebels withdrew overnight, security officers and witnesses said.
The sources said insurgents took control of the Al-Qaim border crossing, one of three official border points between Iraq and Syria, after gunmen linked to the Free Syrian Army and Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front left.
“Gunmen took full control of Al-Qaim and areas surrounding it,” a police lieutenant colonel said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said the militants, who include ISIL but also several other armed Sunni groups, did not enter the actual border crossing buildings for fear of booby traps.
An army major confirmed that the town and its surrounding areas were in insurgent hands.
The takeover of Al-Qaim spurred families in the town to flee, according to an Iraqi border guard whose unit is stationed in the town of Rawa, to the east.
Gunmen loyal to the FSA and Al-Nusra Front seized the Iraqi side of the border crossing on June 17 following the withdrawal of security forces and after having already held control of the Syrian side.
A broad militant alliance including ISIL and other groups has overrun a swathe of territory north of Baghdad in less than two weeks, alarming the international community and threatening Iraq’s very existence.
Meanwhile, Shia fighters paraded in Baghdad on Saturday in a dramatic show of force aimed at Sunni militants.
Thousands of fighters loyal to powerful Shia cleric their Moqtada al-Sadr paraded with weapons in the Sadr City district.
Washington readied a new diplomatic bid to unite Iraq’s fractious leaders and repel insurgents whose lightning offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands, alarmed the world and put Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki under growing pressure domestically and overseas.
