Maliki 'welcomes' Syrian airstrikes on Syria-Iraq border

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has welcomed air strikes by the Syrian government on militants on the Syria side of the Syria-Iraqi border.

Maliki confirmed the attacks during an interview with BBC News on Thursday. 

"There was no co-ordination involved,” he told the broadcaster. “But we welcome this action. We actually welcome any Syrian strike against ISIL... But we didn't make any request to Syria. They carry out their strikes and we carry out ours and the final winners are our two countries."

According to militant sources quoted by the BBC, the strikes first occurred on Tuesday and carried on into Wednesday. 

The strikes came after insurgents led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) took control of the al-Qaim border town on the Iraqi side of the frontier, providing them a strategic route into conflict-hit Syria, where the group is also active.

Both the Maliki government and the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been fighting ISIL which has declared its intention to create an Islamic state across the borders of the two countries.

However, Syria has been isolated by Western countries who have repeatedly called for the President Bashar al-Assad to step down, while Maliki has long been an ally of America and NATO.

The Maliki government in Iraq has had a shaky relationship with the Assad government in Syria. Although both are Shia-led governments (with Assad’s Alawite sect an offshoot of Shiism) the Baathist ideology that underpins Syria was also that favoured by former dictator Saddam Hussein and his supporters.

Although diplomatic relations have been on and off between the two countries for decades, after the outbreak of the war in Syria, Iraq was one of the few countries to maintain an embassy in the country.

In the past, Iraqi forces have fired across the border at opposition forces within Syria.

Fighters have moved with ease between the Iraq and Syrian borders, with ISIL in full control of a large oil field territory in north-eastern Syria and north-western Iraq. 

On Wednesday, a rogue unit of the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front pledged allegiance to ISIL at the Iraq-Syria border town of Albu Kamal, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

If confirmed, the alliance would be controversial and could represent a split within al-Qaeda’s ranks. Previously, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has disowned ISIL.

"The pledge comes amid advances by ISIL in Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria on the Iraqi border,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of SOHR, told AFP.

"They are rivals, but both groups are jihadist and extremists. This move will create tension now with other rebel groups, including Islamists, in the area.”