Syrian troops reach border with Iraq, battle rebel force

BEIRUT — Syrian government forces and rebels were locked in their heaviest fighting yet in Daraa on Monday, as opposition activists feared troops would try and retake the southern city despite a “de-escalation agreement.”

Pro-government forces meanwhile advanced to a second location along the border with Iraq, where they are expected to link up with state-sanctioned militias on the other side. Most of the desert territory is controlled by the Islamic State group.

The state-affiliated Ikhbariya TV station hailed the government’s secondcontactwithiraqwithatriumphant step by its correspondent Rabih Dibi over the berm border.

Iran sponsors both the Iraqi militias and the forces arriving at the border on the Syrian side, including Syrian army units, as well as militias organized by Tehran from Lebanon to Afghanistan.

Iran’s state-affiliated Tasnim News Agency published photos of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, praying with Afghan fighters on the Syrian side of the border.

On Friday, the Syrian coalition established its first toehold on the Iraqi border in three years, with the help of Russian airstrikes against Islamic State militants. The troops bypassed U.S. special operations forces embedded with local oppositionfightersatthetanfandzakf desert outposts dozens of miles to the south.