In the 2017 Western Iraq campaign, the Iraqi government advanced south of the city and by the end of October had reached its outskirts. They entered Al-Qa'im on 3 November 2017, supported by the Norwegian Telemark battalion, Danish and American special forces units. Control by Kata'ib Hezbollah After the eviction of ISIL forces, the Iraqi-based and Iranian-backed militia Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH), a group under the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and which is closely linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has played an important military and security role on the Iraqi side of the border. This role has continued after the reopening of the border crossing on 30 September 2019. On 25 August 2019 a PMF convoy was hit by two drones near Al-Qa'im killing six, including a senior commander. PMF blamed Israel for the attack. The Al-Qa'im border crossing between Abu Kamal in Syria and Al Qa'im in Iraq was reopened on 30 September 2019, after eight years of closure due to Syrian Civil War and Iraqi Civil War. On 29 December 2019, the United States bombed headquarters of Kata'ib Hezbollah. The airstrikes targeted three targets in Iraq and two in Syria of Kata'ib Hezbollah, and included weapons depots and command posts according to Reuters and a US military statement. The attack was in retaliation for the attack on the K-1 base two days earlier and other attacks on bases with US forces in Iraq. The earlier attack killed a US contractor and wounded four soldiers. Twenty-five KH militiamen were killed in the US airstrikes. On 28 June 2021, U.S. airstrikes targeted Iran-backed armed Shi'a militias in Al-Qa'im, Iraq and Al-Bukamal, Syria, leaving at least four militiamen dead. Climate Al-Qa'im has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh). References Populated places in Al Anbar Governorate Populated places on the Euphrates River District capitals of Iraq