Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the Arab country wants to wrest control over the border with Syria in coordination with Damascus, as the Iraqi military along with pro-government fighters are pushing ISIL terrorist group to its final days in Mosul, the terrorists’ last urban stronghold in Iraq.

The Iraqi premier made the remarks during his weekly presser in the capital Baghdad on Tuesday, adding that the government would definitely not allow ISIL terrorists or any other armed group operating in Iraq to cross into neighboring Syria. Abadi said Baghdad would not enter the years-long crisis in Syria.

His comments came eight days after paramilitary fighters, consisting of some 40 groups, reached the Syrian border in the north in an attempt to block ISIL from crossing the common border.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Abadi said Iraqi forces had never used chemical weapons in their counter-terrorism operations, instead they had used smoke grenades, which might be easily mistaken for chemical arms.

Source: Websites