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Report: Syria sanctions result of terror in Iraq

Washington Post reports revival of a transit route for Arab terrorists into Iraq via Syria was one of reasons for Obama's decision to renew US sanctions against Damascus. According to report, interrogation of Tunisian terrorists confirmed suspicions that Syrian pipeline operated by al-Qaeda in Iraq is back in business

WASHINGTON - The revival of a transit route for Arab terrorists into Iraq via Syria was one of the reasons for US President Barack Obama's decision to renew American sanctions against Damascus, the Washington Post reported Monday morning.

 

According to the report, four terrorist who arrived from Tunisia to Libya and then headed to Damascus were taken to a safe house in Syria, where they spent six months. In April they were smuggled across the Iraqi border.

 

Two of them were among the suicide bombers who have killed at least 370 Iraqis in a wave of attacks over the past several weeks. The third Tunisian disappeared, and the fourth was captured and, according to a senior US military official, provided interrogators with an account of their travels.

 

The Tunisian terrorist's interrogation, combined with other information received by the Americans, confirmed US suspicions that after a long hiatus, the Syrian pipeline operated by the al-Qaeda organization in Iraq is back in business.

 

This information joins reports on Syria's ongoing active support for Hamas and Hizbullah. About half a year ago, the US even acted against terror activists on Syrian territory, not far from the Iraqi border.

 

The Washington Post quoted a senior US military official as saying last week, "We just don't know how much their senior leaders know about the foreign fighter network… But we do think that the knowledge of these networks exists at least within the Syrian intelligence community."

 

'Foreign fighters continue to traffic via Syria'

General Ray Odierno, the US military commander in Iraq, confirmed Friday that "some elements of foreign fighters continue to traffic through Syria." He said Damascus had the opportunity to stop the traffic and called on the Syrian government to "demonstrate a commitment to eliminating the use of its soil as a staging area."

 

President Obama has declared that all American forces would pull out of Iraq by 2011 based on the dramatic drop in terror attacks. But the US concern seems to have increased following the latest wave of attacks on Baghdad and Mosul.

 

According to the Washington Post, the military is particularly concerned about the area around Mosul, in the northwest near the Syrian border, which officials have described as the last bastion of al-Qaeda in Iraq's strength.

 

The flow of foreign fighters through Syria reached a high of 80 to 100 a month in mid-2007, the senior military official told the Washington Post, most of them would-be suicide "martyrs" increasingly recruited from extremist communities in North Africa by jihadist websites and networks abroad.

 

But as overall security in Iraq improved later that year, the numbers began to drop. As US and Iraqi troops increased security measures coinciding with Iraqi elections, the traffic reached an all-time low, into the single digits.

 

On Wednesday, the report said, acting Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey D. Feltman and National Security Council official Daniel Shapiro arrived in Syria for their second visit since Obama's inauguration as president.

 

State Department Spokesman Robert Wood said of the sanctions renewal, "I think it sends the message that we have some very serious concerns."

 

Feltman, he added, was "in Damascus to talk about . . . how we can get Syria to change its behavior and see if it's willing to really engage seriously in a dialogue, be a positive role in the Middle East. Up until now, Syria hasn't played that positive role."

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.11.09, 09:27
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