Economic chaos at Iraq's Anbar border crossings
The security situation in Iraq's Anbar province has pushed security forces to close the border crossings on several occasions, impeding the movement of trucks transporting goods into the country and inflicting losses on traders.
![SYRIA-CRISIS/IRAQ An Iraqi police vehicle patrols near the Iraqi-Syrian borders at the Abu Kamal-qaim border crossing, the main border post between Iraq and Syria, September 8, 2012. Al Qaim, in the Sunni heartland of Anbar province, reflects the tricky balancing act Iraq's Shi'ite leaders face in Syria, whose crisis is testing the Middle East's sectarian divide. Al Qaim and its neighbouring Syrian counterpart Albu Kamal are on a strategic supply route for smugglers, gun-runners and now insurgents aiming to join the rebellio](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2014/03/RTR381HX.jpg/RTR381HX.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=yVSQvJuK)
For months, security incidents in Iraq’s Anbar province — the result of military operations conducted by Iraqi government forces against strongholds of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) — have been hindering and sometimes paralyzing the movement of trucks transporting goods into Iraq. These trucks, which enter through the Trebil and Walid border crossings of Jordan and Syria respectively, then pass through the cities of Anbar to reach different Iraqi provinces. Traders and average citizens, as well as the government, have experienced huge losses as a result of security incidents.
Since the end of 2013, Anbar has been subjected to wide-scale military operations that extend along the Jordanian and Syrian borders, and target terrorist organizations and ISIS. This has led more than once to the closing of border crossings to avoid the infiltration or escape of terrorists. However, these crossings were later reopened.