Damascus Allows Iraq to Hit ISIL Targets in Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has authorized Iraqi forces to attack ISIL targets inside his country without waiting for permission from authorities in Damascus, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL) declared a caliphate in 2014 after seizing large swaths of Syria and Iraq, establishing its de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

However, the group has lost all of its strongholds and the vast majority of the territory it controlled since then, although thousands of its armed members are thought to remain in war-battered Syria.

Iraqi warplanes and artillery have pounded ISIL positions inside Syria in the past, after getting the green light from Syrian authorities.

The group has been defeated in Iraq but still holds a small area in Syria close to the Iraqi border.

On Saturday, al-Assad received a letter from Iraq's Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi calling for both countries' coordination in "fighting terrorism", SANA said.

Message end/