Officials: Syria Sending Equipment to Iraq
March 27, 2003
By Liza Porteus - Fox News Channel
WASHINGTON — Senior Defense officials say they are seeing "military equipment" coming across the border from Syria to Iraq.
When pressed about what kind of equipment and how much, the officials said, "night vision goggles and other things," but would not elaborate on how much or how it is affecting the campaign. The United States says Russia, too, has provided Iraq with night-vision goggles, as well as electronic jamming equipment that could alter the path of U.S. bombs and aircraft.During diplomatic wrangling within the U.N. Security Council in the past few months, Syria unabashedly opposed any sort of military action in Iraq.Syria "has been the major conduit for illegal military equipment" into Iraq, Fox News foreign affairs analyst Marc Ginsberg, said Thursday.
Ginsberg, a former U.N. ambassador to Morocco, said Syria has been making money off the oil it allows Iraq to illegally sell on the black market. On Thursday, Syrian mufti Sheikh Ahmad Kaftaro, the country's top Muslim religious authority, called for homicide bombings against coalition forces in Iraq, reported Agence France Press. "I call on Muslims everywhere to use all means possible to thwart the aggression, including martyr operations against the belligerent American, British and Zionist invaders," he said in a statement. "Resistance to the belligerent invaders is an obligation for all Muslims, starting with (those in) Iraq."
AFP reports that this is the first time a senior Syrian religious figure has called for homicide attacks against coalition troops in Iraq. Syria views homicide attacks by Palestinians against Israel as a legitimate "resistance to occupation." Kaftaro called on Muslims everywhere to boycott U.S. and British products, as well as goods from countries supporting the coalition war effort. He also urged "free citizens" all over the world to demonstrate, strike and disrupt airports and ports and other facilities that support the war effort in Iraq.
Separately, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad predicted the United States and Britain would never be able to bring Iraq under their full control and would face "popular Arab resistance," in an interview published on Thursday in Lebanese daily As-Safir.
The Washington Post on Thursday reported that some citizens in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon said they wanted to take up arms for Saddam. Even newspapers that in the days leading up to the war never dared to mention the Iraqi dictator's name now appear to be praising his ability to fight back against coalition forces.
"Six days have passed and not one Iraqi city has fallen to the invaders," wrote Mahmoud Abdel Moneim, a columnist for the al-Ahram daily newspaper in Cairo, Egypt.
"Saddam Hussein hasn't fled, and he hasn't given in. The whole world mocks the allies and their weapons and their numbers, which are incapable of achieving any victory over Iraqi forces who are supported by no one."
A commentary in the Tishrin daily in Syria on Thursday indicated that -- in the words of a writer for the Syrian Web site -- "there is a complete conviction in the world that what is going in Iraq is more than an ordinary aggression and the American strategy in targeting the Iraqi people, land and resources."
The daily stressed that the "U.S. war machine doesn't hesitate to target the Iraqi civilians with round the clock missiles and bombs in the most brutal raids ever in history particularly on Baghdad."
The AlThawra daily indicated that the Iraqi people have proven they are stronger than all the military, and the alBaath daily pointed out the amazing popular resistance of the Iraqi people will be an important factor in the Arab world.
Fox News' Bret Baier and Major Garrett contributed to this report.