Syria, Iraq troops link at border

Progress reported in seizing control from Islamic State militants

BEIRUT — Syrian troops and allied militias met up with Iraqi forces at one crossing point along their shared border Sunday for the first time in years, in a step described as a major achievement by the Syrian military in their fight against the Islamic State group.

The development came as the U.S. military confirmed it had shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet that had bombed forces aligned with the Americans in the fight against IS, threatening to escalate tensions. The Syrian SU-22 was shot down near the town of Tabqa, it said.

The meeting with Iraqi forces reported by pro-government media took place a day after Iraqi forces captured a border crossing point with Syria, al-Waleed, from the IS militants. It was not immediately clear if the Syrian forces reached a new point along their border with Iraq or whether it was the Iraqi forces that had moved northeast of their newly captured point.

The U.S.-led coalition said it was aware of the Iraqi forces’ maneuvers along the border, which highlight Baghdad’s resolve to fight IS.

The maneuvers have no impact on the U.S. presence nearby, a coalition colonel said.

A map by the Central Military Media, allied with the Syrian government, showed Syrian troops at the border with Iraq, northeast of al-Waleed border crossing point with Syria. The Lebanese al-Manar TV linked to Hezbollah, the militia fighting alongside the Syrian government, said Syrian and Iraqi troops linked up at the borders, after the Syrian army seized new territories in its campaign in the Syrian desert.

The Britain-based opposition war monitor group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Iraqi forces had moved northeast of al-Waleed meeting up with pro-Syrian troops for the first time since 2015. The borders had been controlled by IS since.

A Syrian general on the pro-government al-Ikhbariya TV channel said the campaign in recent weeks seized 9,600 square miles, reaching the Iraqi borders, calling it a “qualitative operation.”