A showdown could be looming between the US, Iran, and the Assad regime at the Syria-Iraq border

In April, Syrian rebel fighters and their US special-forces trainers repulsed an ISIS attack in an hours-long battle marked by suicide bombers and coalition airstrikes.

The battle took place at al Tanf near the Syria-Iraq border, and the camp there is still used by US and UK personnel to train Western-backed fighters.

But with ISIS’ territorial presence in Syria continuing to erode, al Tanf and the area around it — near the intersection of the Syrian, Iraqi, and Jordanian borders — looks to be the site of a potential clash between the US-led coalition, its local partners, and the Assad regime and its partners, backed by Iran.

With US-backed forces gearing up to liberate ISIS‘ self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa and ISIS losing ground elsewhere in the Syria, combatants in the country are reportedly trying to position themselves to assume control of territory vacated by terrorist group.