U.S. says 100 fighters a month enter Iraq from Syria
Continues here
My topic header is not to accuse the good General of lying, far from it.
It's the fact that Syria may not be the biggest provider of foreign fighters, and nothing is being said publicly about the nation where a lot of foreign fighters are coming from.
Now why is that?
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Up to 100 foreign fighters cross into Iraq from Syria every month, the U.S. military said on Monday, as Syria's foreign minister held talks with Iraqi leaders to pledge his country's help in tackling insurgents.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have long accused Damascus of doing little to stem the flow of Islamist fighters and weapons across the long, porous border. Syrian officials say sealing the border is impossible and Iraq must do more to patrol its side.
"We don't know how much they (Syria) are assisting this effort, but we don't know how much they are trying to preclude it either," U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.
"We still see foreign fighters coming, between 70 and 100 a month coming across the Syrian border into Iraq," he said, figures in line with those of the past year.
He said U.S. and Iraqi soldiers had killed 425 foreign fighters so far this year and captured 670.Twenty percent of them were Syrian, a similar percentage Egyptian, and most of the rest from Sudan and Saudi Arabia
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem met Iraqi officials including Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the second day of a landmark visit. Iraq and Syria severed ties when Syria sided with Iran during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Moualem pledged Syria's cooperation in tackling violence that has raised the specter of civil war, saying it was prepared to work "hand in hand to achieve the security of brother Iraq".
Continues here
My topic header is not to accuse the good General of lying, far from it.
It's the fact that Syria may not be the biggest provider of foreign fighters, and nothing is being said publicly about the nation where a lot of foreign fighters are coming from.
Now why is that?