In the distance a black flag is waving above a building in downtown Tel Abyad. A new white Toyota pick-up accelerates on a road on the Syrian side shadowing the border fence — the Turkish guards pay it no heed.

Today the border gate is closed but come Monday, says the smuggler, the pipes will likely be whisked across — although not before ISIS agents, clean-shaven to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves, will inspect the goods.

Welcome to the border crossing nearest to the de facto capital of the Islamic State.

One could have expected this border gate separating NATO from the World’s first self-proclaimed jihadist state to be bristling with soldiers and guns. Turkey, after all, has the second biggest military in the Western alliance. But the scene here wouldn’t be out of place in the old Peter Sellers comedy about a blustering mini-state, “The Mouse that Roared.”