AL-QAIM, Iraq — Syrian refugees squeeze against a closed gate at an Iraqi border post, reaching through its metal bars to clamour for water, and calling out to Iraqi cousins and brothers on the other side. Yelling into their cellphones, more Syrians perch on top of the concrete walls that divide Iraq from Syria, waiting for Iraqis to unload trucks filled with boxes of cooking oil and bottled water and hoist them over the Al-Qaim checkpoint. Close by, rebels are fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces over the town of Albu Kamal, bringing the war to Al-Qaim with refugees, Syrian jets and occasional rocket attacks. In Anbar, where tribal ties are strong, discontent over Baghdad's stance on the Syrian crisis is growing. Many have already chosen their side. “When you have cousins here, it is a matter just of luck whether they are Iraqi or Syrian,” said Emad Hammoud, a government worker in Al-Qaim. “In Syria, it's a fight of a government against its people, and we are with the people.” Al-Qaim and its neighboring Syrian counterpart Albu Kamal are on a strategic supply route for smugglers, gun-runners and now insurgents aiming to join the rebellion. Iraqi residents send food, water and medical supplies to pass over the gate at Al-Qaim, where around 200 to 300 Syrian refugees arrive daily seeking shelter or supplies from relatives before heading back home. “This is not help from the state, this is from clerics and from the people,” said one local Iraqi government official at the crossing, who was not authorised by Baghdad to speak publicly about the refugees. After Saddam fell in 2003, many members of his outlawed Baath party fled into Syria. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, who took refuge in Iran and Syria during Saddam's era, has since developed a pragmatic relationship with Assad. Baghdad abstained in an Arab League vote to suspend Syria and resists calls for Arab sanctions, urging reforms instead. In August last year he hosted Syrian ministers, calling Iraq and Syria “brother” nations. Al-Qaim is already struggling with spillover from the fighting in Syria. Syria military jets fly over Iraqi airspace almost daily to make bombing runs on rebel positions just over the border, Al-Qaim's mayor Farhan Ftaikhan says, and most nearby Syrian border posts have been abandoned by Syrian forces. Beyond the frontier, the main border checkpoint on the Syrian side sits empty. On one wall, the Free Syrian Army flag, with its three red stars, is painted over a portrait of Assad's late father, Hafez. Bullet holes cratering the wall partially obliterate his face. Gunshots that pockmark the concrete wall of another border post are evidence of the more regular clashes between Iraqi border troops and gunmen on the Syrian side. Earlier this month, Free Syrian Army rebels fired on Iraqi troops trying to stop four vehicles carrying weapons into Syria. Iraqi troops responded with mortar and canon fire, one Iraqi military official said. For now, Al-Qaim's mayor says, the border is closed for technical reasons, as local authorities wait to complete more camps with a capacity to deal with 10,000 refugees. Outside the town, around 2,000 refugees who managed to cross the border before it was closed are housed in white tents. A similar number are put up with relatives or local residents. The violence is growing. Three times now, Syrian rockets have landed on Al-Qaim, the most recently less than a fortnight ago, when three Katyushas hit a residential neighborhood, killing a small Iraqi girl and wounding some of her family. It was unclear who fired them, the Syrian army or the rebels. But Al-Qaim residents know they will not be the last. “I thought it was one of the Syrian planes we hear overhead. Then we heard the rocket coming at us,” said Firas Attallah, the girl's father. “This is the price we pay, just for the help we are sending, for the food and medicine we send.” — Reuters
