Special to WorldTribune.com

BAGHDAD — For the first time in decades, Iraq has attacked neighboring Syria.

The government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said the Iraq Army attacked a convoy in eastern Syria.

Officials said Iraqi helicopters fired missiles toward vehicles sent by Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“The army struck eight tanker trucks in Wadi Suwab inside Syrian territory as they were trying to enter Iraqi territory to provide the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant with fuel,” Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan said.

Maan said the helicopter strike on April 27 killed at least eight people. The official said Syria was not informed of the attack.

“There was no coordination with the Syrian regime,” Maan said.

This marked the first time that Iraq reported an attack on Syria. Iraq and Syria, both ruled by Baathist regimes, were bitter rivals in the 1980s.

Maan did not identify the Iraqi helicopters, but photographs of the attacks suggested that they included the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. In early 2014, the United States said it was sending five Apaches to Baghdad.

Officials said ISIL established a ratline to bring fighters and weapons
from Syria to Iraq. They said the ISIL convoy was headed for Iraq’s Anbar
province, the focus of the Sunni revolt.

“Our responsibility now is to protect our border and to protect the
border from the other side, because there is no protection from the other
side,” Maan said.

  Brig. Gen. Saad Maan, Iraqi helicopters strike Al Qaida ISIL convoy in Syrian territory, ISIL, Nouri Al Maliki, Wadi Suwab