There are early indications that Syria is trying to make it more difficult for
foreign fighters to cross its border into Iraq to aid insurgents, the top U.S.
commander in Iraq said Friday.
"There is some possibility that Syria may have taken some actions to make it
tougher for these foreign fighters to move through," Gen. David Petraeus said in
an Associated Press interview at the Pentagon.
He stressed that it was too early to say for certain that Syria was now heeding
long-standing U.S. calls to impede the movement of foreign fighters, who U.S.
officials say are involved in some of the more spectacular attacks in Iraq.
"They may be doing more than they certainly have in the past, which is not much,
because they were not doing much in the past," Petraeus added. He said it was
unclear what may be motivating Syria to be more helpful.
The Bush administration has accused Syria's leaders of allowing terrorists to
use their country as a staging area for fighters, money and weapons moving into
Iraq since the start of the war. Earlier this month, President Bush criticized
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for visiting Syria, a trip Bush said could only
encourage a state sponsor of terrorism.
Petraeus said Syria may have its own reasons for limiting al-Qaida's access
through Syrian borders.
"Syria has to worry in the long run that their soil does not become used by
al-Qaida," he said. "They have to worry at what al-Qaida could do to them and
their country. What al-Qaida wants, if you believe al-Qaida, is something very
different from what the Syrian population certainly wants."
Petraeus and other U.S. officials also have complained about Iranian influence
in Iraq, including Iranian supplies of arms to insurgent groups.
At the end of a week in Washington in which he briefed members of Congress and
made numerous public appearances to describe a mixed picture of progress and
setbacks in Iraq, Petraeus also said in the AP interview that the U.S. military
has not developed a specific plan for the possibility of an abrupt withdrawal.
"I'm not aware of a contingency plan for sort of pulling everybody out in haste,
or something like that," the general said. "We're not only reasonably well
positioned but well practiced to move vast amounts of equipment, materiel and
people in and out of that country.
"But if you are going to focus planning effort on something, I think you
generally focus on those contingencies that are most likely and that's not one I
would put high on the list of likelihood."
Brett McGurk, Iraq director for the White House's National Security Council,
said Friday in an interview on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program to air Sunday that
the administration is not thinking in terms of a backup plan for its current
strategy, which was put in place by Bush in January.
Petraeus, who took over as the top U.S. commander in Iraq in February, said he
was encouraged by progress in recent months against al-Qaida elements in Anbar,
the vast province that stretches west from Baghdad to the borders with Syria,
Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Violence in Anbar has declined and U.S.-backed Iraqi
forces have gained a measure of control in keys cities including Ramadi, the
provincial capital.
Petraeus attributed the change in part to tribal leaders becoming fed up with
al-Qaida attacks on civilians and in part to the terrorist group's use of
hijackings and other tactics that have disrupted tribal smuggling operations.
"Al-Qaida was killing business," Petraeus said, adding that he believes the
progress in Anbar will prove lasting.
Speaking from behind a small desk in a windowless Pentagon office designated for
use by visiting commanders of U.S. Central Command, Petraeus said he was not
considering asking Bush for significantly more U.S. troops, beyond the
approximately 30,000 extra that are still flowing into the Baghdad area.
He declined to say how much time he thinks the administration has to stabilize
Iraq before domestic political pressures or other factors force Bush to change
course. He announced on Thursday that he planned to give Defense Secretary
Robert Gates an assessment in September of how the current strategy is working.
Asked about the Pentagon's announcement Friday that it had taken custody of an
Iraqi, Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, who is reported to have been a senior al-Qaida
operative, Petraeus said he had no detailed knowledge of the case. The Pentagon
said al-Iraqi was trying to return to his native Iraq when he was captured.
"There's no question but that there are people moving in and out of Iraq
providing assistance, additional leadership, expertise," Petraeus said. He said
that included al-Qaida members "at very, very high levels," but "perhaps not at
his level but very close to it."
Al-Iraqi is a former member of al-Qaida's now-defunct Shura Council, a 10-person
advisory body to Osama bin Laden
ارحب بكل من انضم الينا في هذه الفترة التي ساقضيها معكم واتلقى مساهماتكم وتعليقاتكم .. اهلا بكم
