Iraq re-opens Al Qaim crossing to refugees

Iraq re-opened its main Al Qaim crossing with Syria to refugees on Tuesday, after closing it for several weeks, but continued to deny entry to single men under 50, an Iraqi official said. Amr Al Khafaji, a spokesman for the displacement and migration ministry, which oversees the refugee camp at Al Qaim, said 150 people had crossed from Syria on Tuesday. But unmarried male Syrians under the age of 50 remain barred from entering Iraq, Khafaji said, a policy apparently aimed at keeping out military-age men who may pose a security threat. The crossing had been closed since Aug. 15 for “security reasons,” Khafaji said. Rebels opposed to President Bashar Al Assad’s regime took over the Syrian side of the crossing in July, although there has since been fighting between pro- and anti-regime forces near the border. Iraqi officials said that Syrian warplanes passed briefly through Iraqi airspace on Aug. 23 in a bombing run on the town of Albu Kamal, on the Syrian side of the border. And on Sept. 7, either mortar rounds or rockets fired from Syria hit Al Qaim, killing a young Iraqi girl and wounding four other people, according to Iraqi officials.