Iraq, Syria reopen major border crossing

AL-QAIM, Sept 30 (AFP): A border crossing on a vital highway linking the capitals of Iraq and Syria, seized by Islamic State group jihadists in 2014, re-opened on Monday, an AFP reporter said.

Iraqi security forces had re-taken the border post near the town of Al-Qaim in late 2017 as part of a massive operation backed by an international coalition against the jihadists' self-proclaimed "caliphate".

On Monday, an AFP video journalist saw trucks hauling cargo across the terminal, which lies on a major highway connecting Baghdad and Damascus.

Close to the Euphrates river in Iraq's restive Anbar province, Al-Qaim faces Albu Kamal in Syria's vast eastern region of Deir Ezzor.