The Associated Press reports that Iraq’s defense minister slammed Damascus on Sunday for letting militants train on Syrian soil and warned that an escalation of violence in Iraq will spill over into neighboring countries:
“We have more than 450 detainees who came from different Arab and Muslim countries to train in Syria and enter with their booby-trapped vehicles into Iraq to bring destruction and killings,” al-Dulaimi said after meeting Jordanian Prime Minister Adnan Badran.
[. . .]
The Iraqi minister demanded more anti-terror support from Damascus, which is already facing intense pressure from the United States to lock down its borders and stop extremists allied with Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, from entering the country.
Friday, Iraq's prime minister demanded that Syria do more to keep foreign fighters from crossing into western Iraq:
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, appearing with visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told reporters it was "no secret" that foreign fighters were using Syrian territory to enter Iraq and the government had implored the Syrians to crack down on such movements.
"So we ask why the Syrians are not responding to our people's demands," al-Jaafari said. "We demand that they control their borders, prevent infiltration and terrorism. We want good relations with Syria, but this cannot be achieved when such violations exist."
U.S. troops launched a major offensive last week against al-Qaida-led fighters near the border with Syria, an area the U.S. command describes as the major entry point for foreign Islamic extremists responsible for many of the suicide attacks that have killed hundreds of Iraqis in recent weeks.
Syria has come under intense pressure since a truck bomb killed former Lebanese prime minister Hariri and 20 other people in Beirut, in February 14. A U.N. investigation found that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were involved in the killing and accused Syria of failing to cooperate with the inquiry.
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