13 July 2017, 20:23 GMT
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Foreign fighters for Daesh terror group (banned in Russia) can no longer enter Syria, US presidential envoy Brett McGurk said on Thursday.
"The foreign fighters are not coming into Syria anymore, and those who are already in Iraq and Syria — we have been working very hard to make sure they can never get out," McGurk told reporters in a briefing.
In June, a Shia-majority militia, the Hashd al-Shaabi force, announced it recaptured the Tal Safwak checkpoint on the Iraqi side of the border with Syria. The People's Protection Units (YPG), a US partner force, control the other side.
Canadian Brig. Gen. D.J. Anderson, partner force development director for Operation Inherent Resolve, said on July 6 that the whole border area between Iraq and Syria must be cleared of terrorists and secured.
