http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?ed...rticle_id=18451

U.S. says 'all options on table' to punish Syrian meddling in Iraq


Compiled by Daily Star staff
Tuesday, September 13, 2005


The top U.S. diplomat in Iraq said Syria has become a hub for terrorists and that U.S. "patience is running out," but he refused to specify what consequences Damascus might face.

The U.S. warning comes as thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces continued a major assault in the town of TalAfar near the Syrian border, that has left up to 200 insurgents dead.

Speaking to reporters at the State Department, U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said: "Our patience is running out, the patience of Iraqis are running out. The time for decision ... has arrived for Damascus."

Khalilzad refused to rule out either a military strike on Syria or an attempt to further punish Syria through the United Nations Security Council.

"All options are on the table," he warned.

"I would not like to elaborate more, they should understand what I mean," he added.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari toured TalAfar defying a $100,000 bounty placed on his head by the militant group The Islamic Army in Iraq for authorizing the assault.

Iraq's Third Army Brigade launched a fresh offensive yesterday, killing 40 insurgents and arresting 21 "terrorist emirs," or senior insurgent leaders, the brigade's media officer said, in an operation ending at around 5:15 p.m.

"We also seized a cache of heavy weaponry, including mortars, artillery, explosives, TNT, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades," he said.

The United States believes that Iraqi Sunnis are refusing to agree a proposed constitution because of threats from Sunni extremists who have infiltrated Iraq from Syria, where they have training camps, said Khalilzad.

"Syria has to decide what price it's willing to pay in making Iraq success difficult," the ambassador warned.

"It simply must close the training camps," he said. "It should not allow youngsters misguided by Al-Qaeda, from Saudi Arabia, from Yemen, from North Africa, to fly into Damascus international airport."

Khalilzad accompanied Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who will meet President George W. Bush in Washington today.

Khalilzad warned that Iraq could become worse than Afghanistan under the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban if extremists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, were to prevail.


"If people like Zarqawi were to dominate Iraq, it will make Afghanistan under the Taliban look like a picnic, given the resources of Iraq, the location of Iraq," Khalilzad said.

Back in TalAfar, Abdel-Aziz Jassem, the Defense Ministry official in charge of operations in the town, said his forces were nearly in control of western areas of the city.

"Overall 157 terrorists have been killed and 291 arrested since the beginning of the operations," he told a news briefing in Baghdad before the new offensive in TalAfar.

"We have cleared Saray totally and now we will clear other neighborhoods," a senior officer in TalAfar, who gave his name only as Colonel Khalaf, said, referring to a central district at the heart of the insurgency.

"Under our plan, by Thursday the city should be clear and

safe," he added.

The Iraqi Army lost its first soldier in the fighting in TalAfar, Jassem said, adding that six civilians had also died. He said the rebels were well prepared for the assault - the army found 41 weapons caches and an "advanced medical treatment center for their own casualties."

Iraqi troops in TalAfar said rebels were booby-trapping civilian homes with explosives to hit soldiers raiding them.

Jabr told a news briefing in Baghdad that at least 10 houses had been blown up by such devices and Saray was full of them.

But Jaafari had given orders to take special care to protect civilian lives, Jabr added, saying: "This is the first clean military operation that has ever happened in Iraq."

Officials said some 8,500 people had been displaced and were being looked after in tent camps set up nearby.

In another development, a huge car bomb exploded outside a popular restaurant in Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighborhood last night, witness said. Hospital officials reported at least one person was killed and 17 were wounded. A doctor at Yarmouk Hospital said most of the victims were women. - Agencies