Now that the Iraqi town of al Qa’im has finally fallen to Iraqi forces, the Islamic State has a big problem.

After all, the al Qa’im border crossing with Syria gave the Islamic State a crucial conduit for moving personnel and materiel across its caliphate. Its fall means that the Islamic State is increasingly bereft of territorial mobility. While the terrorist army still holds some areas of the Iraq-Syria border north of al Qa’im and the Euphrates river, those locales are under significant pressure from Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraqi forces in Iraq.