An Iraqi air strike against the Islamic State group inside Syria today was coordinated with the Damascus government, a source close to the Syrian foreign ministry said.
The source told leading newspaper Al-Watan, close to the Syrian regime, that "Iraqi bombardment on terrorist targets inside Syrian territory took place in full coordination with the government of the Syrian Arab Republic".
The strike was announced earlier today by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in a statement and is believed to be the first of its kind by Iraqi jets on Syrian territory.
"We ordered the air force command to strike Daesh terrorist sites in Husseibeh and Albu Kamal, in Syrian territory," the premier said, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist organisation.
Both locations cited by Abadi are very close to the border and lie in the Euphrates Valley, facing the remote western Iraqi town of Al-Qaim.
Husseibeh is a town in Iraq but an area that lies on the Syrian side of the border bares the same name.
Jihadists have lost most of their urban bastions in the vast western province of Anbar since Iraqi forces mounted a counter-offensive following the capture by IS of around a third of the country in 2014.
The Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against IS in Iraq said the raid targeted those responsible for a car bomb in Baghdad last week that killed at least 52 people.
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