ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq has reopened its al-Qaim border crossing with Syria, more than half a year after it was closed during a rebel offensive that toppled the Syrian regime, Iraqi state media reported on Saturday.
Syrian authorities announced last week that they would reopen the border crossing on Saturday. Iraqi authorities did not confirm it at the time, but the state-owned INA cited the border authority on Saturday as saying the crossing has been reopened.
The crossing lies between Syria’s al-Bukamal city in southeastern Deir ez-Zor province and Iraq’s al-Qaim town in northwestern Anbar.
The Qaim crossing is one of Iraq’s “important crossings,” Turki al-Khalaf, district mayor of Qaim, told Rudaw on Thursday, adding that its reopening will have a significant impact on commercial and economic movement, particularly for Anbar province.
Iraq closed its western border and tightened security in late November when the now-dissolved Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) made a dramatic grab for territory in northern Syria before toppling dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December.