London Times December 23, 2004 Baghdad accuses Syrians of backing Baathist insurgents >From Nicholas Blanford in Damascus
IRAQ has confronted Syria with evidence indicating that senior Syrian officials have been assisting the Iraqi insurgency, it emerged yesterday. The evidence includes photographs of Syrian officials taken from Iraqi fighters captured during the offensive against Fallujah last month. US Marines in Fallujah also found a hand-held global-positioning system receiver with waypoints originating in western Syria and the names of four Syrians in a list of 27 foreign fighters contained in a ledger. Hassan Allawi, Iraq's newly appointed Ambassador to Syria, told The Times in Damascus: "Prime Minister Iyad Allawi wrote a letter to the Syrians saying he had the pictures but was not going to release them despite being under pressure from the Americans to do so." Mr Allawi said the photographs were found in the possession of Moayed Ahmed Yasseen, also known as Abu Ahmed, leader of the Jaish Muhammad group composed of former Baathist intelligence personnel. One picture showed Mr Yasseen standing beside a senior Syrian official, he said. Mr Yasseen was arrested in Fallujah in mid-November. The evidence has triggered renewed accusations by US and Iraqi officials that Syria is providing assistance to former Iraqi Baathists who are believed to be running the insurgency from Damascus. Last week General George W. Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq, said that the exiled Baathists had formed a group called the New Regional Command and were directing operations from Damascus. He said the Syrian authorities were "not going after the big fish, which is really the people that we're interested in". Mr Allawi claimed there was an "Iraqi Baathist invasion of Syria" which was a real danger to the Syrian Government. "It is overwhelming," he said. "They stole gold and robbed banks and came here. They have enough funds to keep fighting for 30 years." Western diplomats in Damascus say it is unclear to what extent Iraqi Baathists are involved in the insurgency and what level of assistance is being provided by elements in the Syrian regime. "There is a high level of suspicion but not much evidence," a European diplomat in Damascus said. Mehdi Dakhlallah, Syria's Information Minister, said it was impossible to monitor all Iraqis who had entered Syria since the war. "Syria has always been open to all Arabs and if they have the correct documents they can enter," he said. "But we cannot read their minds about what they are going to do once they are here." Former officers in the Iraqi intelligence services are also suspected of entering Syria using fake passports. There are officially 250,000 to 300,000 Iraqis living in Syria, although the International Organisation for Migration says the figure is probably much higher. Most of the wealthier Iraqi exiles have settled in the Mezzeh district of west Damascus. They drive expensive cars and dine in the priciest restaurants. Most Sunni Iraqi exiles openly support the anti-US resistance. Among names mentioned by the exiles as leaders of the reorganised Iraqi Baath party are Sabawi Ibrahim, a half-brother of Saddam Hussein, who headed Iraqi intelligence at the time of the 1991 Gulf War, and Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed, secretary-general of the Iraqi Baath party regional command. Many Iraqi exiles say that Syria is being unfairly singled out for criticism when there are many more Baathists, including senior figures of the old Iraqi regime, living in Jordan.
