BAGHDAD — Iraq closed its border with Jordan until further notice, in part to deprive Islamic State militants of taxes they impose on cargo trucks driving through their territory, a senior Iraqi military official said Thursday.
A Jordanian government official confirmed the closure of the Trebil crossing between Jordan and Iraq.
The closure dealt a new blow to Jordan’s fragile economy which has suffered from the spillover of Islamic State land grabs in neighboring Iraq and Syria since the summer of 2014. In the spring, Jordan closed its only trade crossing with Syria after Islamic militants seized the area from Syrian government forces.
In Iraq, the Islamic State group controls large areas between Trebil and the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, in the country’s Anbar province. Earlier this week, Iraq launched a large-scale military offensive to try to dislodge the Islamic State group from Anbar.