The Iraqi and Turkish Fault Lines
The Syria war spreads to Iraq; Turkey is increasingly divided over Prime Minister Erdogan’s Syrian policies; and Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip to the region includes progress toward a political solution in Syria.
The Iraqi Fault Line
On March 5, Syrian militants reportedly affiliated with al-Qaeda attacked a convoy of Syrian and Iraqi soldiers near the Rabia border crossing in western Iraq. Forty-eight Syrians, mostly military, and nine Iraqi soldiers were killed. The Syrians had earlier received medical treatment in Iraq.
As Mushreq Abbas reported for Al-Monitor, the ambush at the border should not just be considered a “military confrontation in the strictest sense of the word, but rather was an extension of the national turmoil on both sides of the border.”
Iraq is also breaking down along sectarian fault lines similar to those destroying Syria, as the civil war there spills over the borders, playing into Iraq’s own factional politics, which remain at high boil.
