Syrian soldiers in front of the eyes of Iraqi soldiers,” Assadi said.
The situation has put the government of Iraq on high alert.
“We have security concerns because the border crossing now is out of the Syria government’s control, and nobody can anticipate what will happen,” said Iraqi Army Brig. General Qassim al-Dulaimi.
Al-Duliami said about a half-dozen rebels stormed the Syrian border crossing near the Iraqi town of Qaim on Thursday morning. He said the rebels forced the border guards from their posts but did not cross into Iraq.
Qaim is located about 200 miles west of Baghdad. Mohammed Fathi, spokesman for the governor of Iraq’s western Anbar province that includes Qaim, said the border crossing had already been closed to traffic because of the civil war.
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Hours later, in the remote Sinjar mountain range, al-Dulaimi said rebels attacked a Syrian army outpost near the Iraqi border, killed 20 soldiers and their commander. The rebels then seized control of the outpost, al-Duliami said.
As a result of the attacks, the Iraqi government is sending extra troops to the border, reports the New York Times.
“We will not accept either the Syrian army or the Free Syrian Army to enter our territory,” Col. Dhia al-Wakil, 바카라사이트 a spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, said on local television, according to the Times.
The leadership in Iraq has long cast a weary eye at the uprising in Syria, fearing it could spill across their border, which is 363 mile long.
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