‘Iraq violence costing Jordan JD1 million per day’

AMMAN — Ongoing violence in western Iraq is costing Jordan over JD1 million per day as cargo flow between the two countries slows to a trickle, trucking companies say.

Mohammad Kheir Dawood, head of the Jordan Truck Owners Association, said on Thursday that growing instability and reduced cargo traffic has cost local trucking companies over JD200 million since the Islamic State’s (IS) seizure of large swathes of land in the west and north of Iraq.

Ongoing instability and the threat of roaming militias has reduced daily traffic flow between Jordan and Iraq from 400 trucks to between 30 and 50, trucking companies say. 

Iraqi government forces briefly withdrew from the Iraqi-Jordanian border in June, a period during which tribal militias manned the Karama border crossing.

Although Iraqi government forces have returned to the border, large portions of Anbar province remain in the hands of militias, causing many trucking companies to suspend their Amman-Baghdad routes, Dawood said. 

According to Anbar tribes, tribal militias have been working to guarantee the safety of Jordanian trucks heading to the province, the main source of basic food supplies to under-siege regions in west Iraq. 

Despite their efforts, sources within Anbar claim IS militias continue to man several checkpoints leading into Fallujah and Ramadi.