Syria on Edge Over U.S.-Iraq Fighting

[Algorem]

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050518/API/505180996

By DONNA ABU-NASR
Associated Press Writer

DEIR EZ ZOUR, Syria

In this remote corner of Syria where the Euphrates River cuts a lush strip through empty desert, fighting between U.S. Marines and Iraqi insurgents just across the border has people on edge.

Artillery shells that strayed from Iraq during last week's battles injured several Syrians, townspeople complain. And Syria's government is again on the defensive against U.S. accusations that it allows fighters to cross its territory.

On Wednesday, a top U.S. military official charged that Iraq's recent surge of bombings and other insurgent violence could be traced to a meeting in Syria about a month ago by lieutenants of extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and possibly attended by the Jordanian militant himself.

Syrian officials had no immediate comment. But earlier Wednesday, the government newspaper denied Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's accusation that Syria still lets foreign militants cross into Iraq...

[bemildred]

1. Syria will continue to do everything it can to ignore these provocations.

And wisely so.

[Roland99]

4. Ayup. The focus should be on the Saudi border since the suicide bombers

are mostly Saudis.

[daleo]

2. This may be the real reason Syria withdrew from Lebanon.

They knew their troops would be needed on the Iraqi border, to defend against Bushian aggression.

[PurityOfEssence]

3. 'Cuz we're gonna fuck 'em and they know it.

I wonder how the old man would have handled all this, rather than the confused son. Richard Cromwell didn't do so well either.

Israel is ready to provide the manpower we can't, and we're spoiling for a fight. If we hadn't fucked up in April '03, we'd have attacked them. This shouldn't be too hard to see.