[Peace-discuss] Incursions into Syria.

[Morton K. Brussel]

FYI.  --mkb

Syria accuses US of launching lethal raids over its borders
By Harry de Quetteville in Baghouz
(Filed: 29/10/2005)

Syria has accused the United States of launching lethal military  
raids into its territory from Iraq, escalating the diplomatic crisis  
between the two countries as the Bush administration seeks to step up  
pressure on President Bashar Assad's regime.



Concern: A Syrian soldier looks across at Iraqi border
Major General Amid Suleiman, a Syrian officer, said that American  
cross-border attacks into Syria had killed at least two border  
guards, wounded several more and prompted an official complaint to  
the American embassy in Damascus.

He made the allegations during an official press tour of Syrian  
security forces on the Iraqi border, which the US claims is a barely  
guarded passage into Iraq for hardcore foreign jihadis.

While showing off what he said were beefed-up Syrian border measures  
designed to blunt those criticisms, including new police stations and  
checkpoints, Maj Gen Suleiman alleged that his own border forces had  
come under repeated American attack.

"Incidents have taken place with casualties on my surveillance  
troops," he said, near the Euphrates river border crossing between  
Syria and Iraq. "Many US projectiles have landed here. In this area  
alone, two soldiers and two civilians have been killed by the  
American attacks."

The charge follows leaks in Washington that the US has already  
engaged in military raids into Syria and is contemplating launching  
special forces operations on Syrian soil to eliminate insurgent  
networks before they reach Iraq.

"No one in the administration has any problem with acting tough on  
Syria; it is the one thing they all agree on," said Edward Walker, a  
former US ambassador to Egypt and Israel, who is now head of the  
Middle East Institute think-tank. "I've heard there have been some  
cross-border activities, and it certainly makes sense as a warning to  
Syria that if they don't take care of the problem the US will step up  
itself."

But he warned that the increased blurring of battle lines between  
Iraq and Syria could turn a diplomatic stand-off between the two  
nations, playing out at the UN, into a fully fledged military  
confrontation. "It could escalate. With Syrian border guards getting  
shot, it could turn into a major issue."

In the Euphrates valley, however, the alleged cross-border fire  
fights are already a major issue. The Syrian military said that in  
May, in the divided village of Baghouz, which straddles the Syria- 
Iraq border about 350 miles north east of Damascus, Abdullah al- 
Hassake was manning a rundown concrete frontier outpost when he and  
fellow soldiers heard US helicopters.

He went on to the police station roof to survey the impending battle  
between US troops and Iraqi insurgents, who flee to the border when  
under attack, and was killed by fire from the US helicopters.

Syrian officials said that US charges that they were not doing enough  
to prevent insurgents crossing into Iraq are unfair. They pointed to  
new barbed wire and reinforced sand barriers across the 400-mile  
border, which cost £1.5 million, and claimed that they had deported  
or arrested about 1,500 foreign fighters heading to Iraq.

Much of the border is impossible to seal. Across the divide, the  
continuing violence in Iraq is all too evident. Both sides have  
strong ties with the regime of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam  
Hussein. "The people here are happy to help fighters go to face the  
Americans," said one local. But reinforced security on the Syrian  
side had made life harder, he added. That view is supported by some  
Western diplomats in Damascus, although US defence officials remain  
sceptical.

"The Syrians have stopped actively encouraging jihadis to go," said  
one diplomat. "In fact recently they've tried quite hard to stop it."

Across the Euphrates, the border appears to be the likely stage for a  
future showdown between the US and Syria.

"Sometimes the US soldiers fire at us every day," said Ibrahim  
Brahim, a Syrian security official. "Sometimes it's simply a mistake,  
but sometimes it's not. Mostly the US army wants to show us its power."

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