BAGHDAD: At least 16 Iraqi border guards were killed on Monday in a dawn assault by the Islamic State jihadist group on their post near the Syrian frontier, provincial and security officials said.

“Sixteen border guards, including a captain, were killed and four wounded in an attack targeting their headquarters in Al-Walid, near the Syrian border”, Faleh al-Issawi, deputy head of Anbar provincial council, said. He said the attack occurred at around 6am. A commander in the Iraqi border force and a police major confirmed the death toll.

Despite the attack, “Al-Walid is still in the hands of Iraqi forces,” the major said.

The crossing is one of the country’s most remote outposts and lies 500 kilometres west of Baghdad near the westernmost point in Anbar province where the borders of Iraq, Syria and Jordan meet.

Jihadist fighters briefly held Al-Walid border crossing on June 23 but it has remained in government hands since.

Parts of the vast Anbar province, which also borders Saudi Arabia, have been out of government control since the start of the year, months before IS launched a major offensive across Iraq in June.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2014