Members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group have reportedly executed nearly two dozen truck drivers on the border with Iraq’s western province of Anbar as Syrian government forces, supported by allied fighters from popular defense groups, are fighting to drive foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants out of the war-ravaged Arab country.
An Iraqi security source, requesting not to be named, told Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network on Wednesday that Daesh Takfiris staged an ambush on the Syrian side of the border, killing 20 people.
The source added that the truck drivers were waiting to cross into Iraq, and that the militants have fled the area with the ill-fated drivers’ trucks.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country.
On December 9, 2017, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against the Daesh terrorist group in the Arab country.
On July 10, Abadi formally declared victory over Daesh extremists in Mosul, which served as the terrorists’ main urban stronghold in the conflict-ridden Arab country.
In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.
The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January 2017 after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19 last year.
Daesh began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks.