As caliphate falls, U.S. builds bridge
Marines help to clear final remnants of Islamic State near border with Syria
QAIM, Iraq — The U.S.led coalition’s newest outpost in the fight against the Islamic State group is in a dusty corner of western Iraq near the border with Syria. Here, several hundred American Marines operate close to the battlefront, a key factor in the recent series of swift victories against the extremists.
The Americans directed Iraqi troops in their victory this month recapturing the nearby border town of Qaim, the militants’ last urban holding.
Now the Marines will lead the equally difficult task of clearing the extremists from their last redoubt — a large stretch of empty desert north of the Euphrates River adjoining the border with Syria.
They also face the possibility of friction with Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite militias that are increasing their own presence in the border region.
Under a plastic tent, the Marines run an austere joint command center 12 miles from the border. A dozen monitors relay surveillance footage and troop positions in the town of Qaim nearby.
Using racks of radio and satellite equipment, the coalition forces and Iraqi officers at the base pass information between forces on the ground and al-Asad air base, the coalition’s main base in Anbar province some 80 miles to the east.
Such outposts have become more common the last year, bringing the Americans out of main bases and closer to the action. U.S. commanders say the tactic has paid off in the swift rollback of the Islamic State group.
The capture of Qaim completed the sweep driving Islamic State from major towns along the Euphrates Valley in Iraq. Along the river on the Syrian side, Syrian government forces took the city of Deir el-Zour recently and the border town of Boukamal facing Qaim last week.
All that remains from the so-called “caliphate” that once stretched from northwest Syria to the edges of Baghdad are a small line of villages on the Euphrates in Syria and the enclave of desert straddling the border into Iraq.
U.S. Marines Col. Seth Folsom, commander of Task Force Lion, oversaw both Syria and the Qaim fight and said he expects clearing and holding the retaken territory in Anbar to be more difficult than the assault itself.