Syrian Rebels Seize Iraq Border Crossing From Islamic State

A group of Syrian rebel fighters seized control of a crossing on the Iraqi border late on March 4, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A barrage of air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition forced the Islamic State (IS) extremist group to withdraw from the Syrian side of Al-Tanf, and rebel forces entered on the ground from Jordan to take over the crossing, the observatory said.

The Iraqi side of Al-Tanf remains under IS control. IS had seized the Syrian side from Syrian government forces in May 2015, depriving the regime of its last border crossing with Iraq.

Along the rest of the border with Iraq, IS controls the key Albu Kamal crossing, but Kurdish fighters control Yarabiyah to the north.

Violence in Syria has been substantially reduced by a partial truce in the past week, but the truce does not encompass fighting against IS or the Al-Nusra group, an Al-Qaeda affiliate.