Militants seized a border post on the Iraq-Syria -borders


 Written by : Mohamed Abdel Fattah
 Jun 21, 2014

 Fighters led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized a border post on the Iraq-Syria frontier, security sources said on Saturday.

The rebels first moved into the nearby town of al-Qaim on Friday, pushing out security forces, the sources said. Al-Qaim and its neighbouring Syrian counterpart Albukamal are on a strategic supply route.

At least 11 Iraqi soldiers have been killed and 21 more have been wounded since clashes erupted Friday in the border town of Al-Qaim . Also, at least 20 militants were killed after Iraqi forces shelled areas from where the extremists launched attacks, two security officials in Ramadi, Iraq, told CNN.

The police officer said the ISIS fighters had taken over most of the government buildings in Qaim and freed prisoners being held in the police station

Al-Qaim is important,because ISIS has tried to take a complete control over areas in the east of Deir Ezzor in order to reach to the Syrian-Iraqi borders, and then to connect its held areas in both Syria and Iraq with each other.

ISIS, an al Qaeda splinter group, wants to establish a caliphate, or Islamic state, that would stretch from Iraq into northern Syria .

The most recent gains by the Sunni rebels come as Shia fighters loyal to the powerful religious leader Moqtada al-Sadr rallied across Iraq, vowing to protect the capital Baghdad, and religious sites.

Also on Friday, Iraq’s leading Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a statement through a spokesman calling on Iraq’s diverse political parties to move quickly to form a new government.

He also again clarified that his call for volunteers to defend Iraq against extremist jihadis was not meant as a call to arms for Shiites, but for all Iraqis.

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