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Damascus, Baghdad Say Albou Kamal Crossing to Be Opened Soon

An Iraqi border policeman looks through a pair of binoculars near the Iraqi-Syrian borders. (Reuters)
An Iraqi border policeman looks through a pair of binoculars near the Iraqi-Syrian borders. (Reuters)
    Damascus, London – Asharq Al-Awsat
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Damascus, Baghdad Say Albou Kamal Crossing to Be Opened Soon

An Iraqi border policeman looks through a pair of binoculars near the Iraqi-Syrian borders. (Reuters)
An Iraqi border policeman looks through a pair of binoculars near the Iraqi-Syrian borders. (Reuters)

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced Monday that the Albou Kamal border crossing will be opened soon.

The portal is known as the Qaim crossing on the Iraqi side of the border.

The announcement coincided with the opening of Quneitra crossing in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Nassib crossing with Jordan.

“We are now looking at the interest of the Syrian and Iraqi people in opening up the Albou Kamal crossing... as soon as possible," Muallem said in a joint press conference with Jaafari in Damascus.

Three crossings link the two neighbors. Albou Kamal is the only one currently controlled by regime forces from the Syrian side.

Jaafari, for his part, said that the process of opening the crossings will be imminent even if it has taken some time.

He stressed that “there is no justification for this delay,” explaining that “the crossings for us are not only geographical, but they also have cultural, economic, political and even demographic importance.”

"Therefore, efforts have been put for the opening of these crossings, which bring good to the two countries,” Jaafari added.

Prior to the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in 2011, the Albou Kamal crossing formed a strategic corridor between the two countries.

In 2014, the crossing came under ISIS control, which announced the establishment of a so-called “caliphate” in large areas of Iraq and Syria before it was gradually driven out and defeated in late 2017.

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Israeli Troops, Palestinian Fighters Clash in West Bank after Incidents Near Settlements

Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
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Israeli Troops, Palestinian Fighters Clash in West Bank after Incidents Near Settlements

Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Israeli troops move inside the Jenin refugee camp on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH

Clashes broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank on Saturday as Israel pushed ahead with a military operation in the flashpoint city of Jenin.
Israeli troops searched areas around Jewish settlements after two separate security incidents on Friday evening. In Jenin itself, drones and helicopters circled overhead while the sound of sporadic firing could be heard in the city, said Reuters.
Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids since Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the West Bank in months.
The operation, which Israel says was mounted to block Iranian-backed militant groups from attacking its citizens, has drawn international calls for a halt.
At least 19 Palestinians, including armed fighters and civilians, have now been killed since it began. The Israeli military said on Saturday a soldier had been killed during the fighting in the West Bank.
The Israeli forces were battling Palestinian fighters from armed factions that have long had a strong presence in Jenin and the adjoining refugee camp, a densely populated township housing families driven from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war around the creation of Israel.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday a child had been taken to hospital in Jenin with a bullet wound to the head.
The escalation in hostilities in the West Bank takes place as fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas group still rages in the coastal Gaza Strip nearly 11 months since it began, and hostilities with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in the Israel-Lebanon border area have intensified.
Late on Friday, Israeli forces said two men were killed in separate incidents near Gush Etzion, a large West Bank settlement cluster located south of Jerusalem, that the military assessed were both attempted attacks on Israelis.
In the first, a car exploded at a petrol station in what the army said was an attempted car bombing attack. The military said a man was shot dead after he got out of the car and tried to attack soldiers.
In the second incident, a man was killed after the military said a car attempted to ram a security guard and infiltrate the Karmei Tzur settlement. The car was chased by security forces and crashed and an explosive device in it was detonated, the military said in a statement.
The two deaths were confirmed by Palestinian health authorities but they gave no details on how they died.
Troops combed the area following the two incidents. Security forces also carried out raids in the city of Hebron, where the two men came from.
Hamas praised what it called a "double heroic operation" in the West Bank. It said in a statement it was "a clear message that resistance will remain striking, prolonged and sustained as long as the brutal occupation's aggression and targeting of our people and land continue".
The group, however, did not claim direct responsibility for the attacks.
Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi said on Saturday Israel would step up defensive measures as well as offensive actions like the Jenin operation.
Amid the gunfire, armored bulldozers searching for roadside bombs have ploughed up large stretches of paved roads and water pipes have been damaged, leading to flooding in some areas.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October that triggered the Gaza war, at least 660 Palestinian combatants and civilians have been killed in the West Bank, according to Palestinian tallies, some by Israeli troops and some by Jewish settlers who have carried out frequent attacks on Palestinian communities.
Israel says Iran provides weapons and support to militant factions in the West Bank - under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Middle East war - and the military has as a result cranked up its operations there.