Iraq Seizes 200 Explosive Belts Along Syrian Border
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces seized 200 explosive belts along the Syrian border yesterday, a police spokesman said, reinforcing Baghdad’s claims that its western neighbor isn’t doing enough to stop the flow of fighters and weapons to Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The belts were found during a search of a truck that had crossed into Iraq from Syria at the Waleed border station, Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.
American military spokesman Brigadier General Kevin Bergner told reporters that 60 to 80 foreign fighters enter Iraq “in any given month” — 70% of them through Syria. He said up to 90% of the suicide attacks in Iraq were carried out by “foreign-born Al Qaeda terrorists.”
He cited the July 1 suicide attack that collapsed part of a major bridge across the Euphrates River north of Ramadi. A second bomber, who was supposed to have attacked the bridge but backed out and was captured, told interrogators he had been recruited by Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, flown to Syria and smuggled across the border to Ramadi, where he was for 10 days before the attack.
