One officer near the Husaybah border crossing at Qaim told Al-Monitor, "It is normal — they are still shooting at us from over there," while another, tasked with accompanying Al-Monitor, said, "They are just testing their weapons. It is not actually fighting."
An officer and soldiers deployed in the area told Al-Monitor that numerous mortar shells were still being fired at Iraqi frontline positions from across the border in the days following the victory announcement. No mortar attacks occurred while the reporter was in the area.
Col. Ali Fendi, an Iraqi army commander of the 28th Brigade's 1st Regiment, told Al-Monitor, "But none of our men have been injured [in the cross-border mortar attacks]. We have been fighting IS for many years. We know how they operate."
The troops were stationed at a home with a damaged satellite dish on the roof, despite IS having banned these. Syrian territory could be seen from the roof through binoculars.
The border city, inhabited only in the past century, lies in an area of highly fertile land alongside the Euphrates River and is strategic for several reasons. It was where Iraq reportedly extracted uranium for its nuclear weapons program in the 1980s, though the site was destroyed by bombings in 1991. A compound continued to produce fertilizer using phosphates from the nearby Akashat mine in subsequent years.
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