TAORMINA - US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Friday slammed Iran and Syria for inciting unrest and violence in neighbouring Iraq and said Russian arms sales to Teheran were ”unhelpful.”
Rumsfeld told reporters at a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Taormina that Washington was trying to persuade Iran and Syria to stop their “harmful” conduct in Iraq.
“Thus far we were not very successful,” said Rumsfeld, adding: “I can understand that from their standpoint a sovereign and democratic Iraq is not encouraging to their type of government.”
He also voiced concern at Russia’s recent sale of an air defence system to Iran.
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And yet we have this Story
US colonel sees cut in fighters coming to Iraq from Syria
By Ferry Biedermann on the Iraq-Syria border
Alleged infiltration of foreign militants into Iraq through Syria appears to have dramatically slowed down, according to US military officers on the Iraqi-Syrian border.
In spite of continued allegations from Washington officials that Damascus is continuing to support the infiltration of jihadis into Iraq, the American commander in the northern border region says that in more than 130 detentions of smugglers by his troops along the border in the past nine months, "we did not find one foreign fighter".
Colonel Greg Reilly of the 3rd squadron of the 3rd Armoured Cavalry, based at Sinjar some 50km inside Iraq, also discounted the tales of massive financial or logistical support coming across the border. "If there was a strong relationship, we'd have found money caches or they would have tried to divert us from the border. That has not happened." His troops control the northern 300km of the border. (...)
This is a far cry from Iraqi and US allegations of significant support for the militants coming from Syria. President George W. Bush said on January 11 that there were "suiciders coming in from Syria into Iraq", referring to the US assertion that most of the suicide bombings in Iraq were carried out by foreigners.
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