US Close to Military Action against Iraqi and other Targets in
Syria
Busy Baghdad Highway to Damascus
Day 26 of Iraq War - April 13, 2003
DEBKAfile Intelligence
Round about noon on Sunday, April 13, US commanders realized that,
while they were preoccupied with the civic needs of Baghdad, they
were missing the biggest spectacle of the war the 2003 Exodus
from Iraq. Members of Saddams regime in their thousands were
pouring out of Baghdad and Saddams last strongholds of Tikrit,
Samarra and al Ramadi and heading for the Syrian frontier and
Damascus. DEBKAfiles intelligence and military sources report that
Syrian military intelligence teams waited on the other side of the
border, sorting the fugitives into groups and moving them on. Most
high officials and officers were directed to Damascus and the
Mediterranean towns of Latakia or Tartous.
US special forces sped to the Syrian border exits to try and stem
the outflow, a mission well nigh impossible, given the winding,
porous 500-km frontier populated by Arab nomadic tribes who make
their living by smuggling people, arms, oil and contraband back and
forth. A few of the escapees were nabbed but most crossed to
safety. Our sources quote witnesses who saw a long line of black
armor-plated limousines with Iraqi number plates driving into
Damascuss Al Maze and other military airports in Syria. They could
not tell if the limousines were collecting Iraqis coming in by
plane or delivering top Saddam officials to special flights leaving
Syria.
The safe and assisted passage of thousands of Saddams top men into
Syria evoked yet another stern warning from President George W.
Bush in Washington Sunday, April 13. The Syrians must stop
harboring Baathists and other Iraqis to be brought to account, he
said and leveled another grave charge against Damascus: We believe
there are chemical weapons in Syria, he said.
The presidents denunciations topped the cautions issued by defense
secretary Donald Rumsfeld and secretary of state Colin Powell
earlier in the day. Rumsfeld: We found a lot of fighters from
Syria, a lot got killed last night. If Saddam Hussein turns out to
be in Syria, he said: Syria will have made the worst of a whole
lot of bad mistakes. Powell advised Syria to stop supporting
terrorists.
It will be recalled that DEBKAfile was first to reveal that Syria
had granted asylum to senior Iraqi officials and provided them with
the facilities to conduct the war from outside Iraq.
The catalogue of serious Syrian offences thrown out by Bush and his
team in less than one day reads ominously like a final warning to
President Bashar Assad.
Even this catalogue was not comprehensive. It is worth noting that
the US president did not say Syria has chemical weapons, but We
believe there are chemical weapons in Syria. He did not say they
were Syrias weapons. According to a DEBKAfile senior in the US
administration, Assad, in addition to rescuing Saddam and his
minions, is working with a will to de-legitimize the American war
in Iraq and make sure it can never be justified. He is trying to
achieve this by placing Iraqs entire chemical and biological
weapons arsenal in a safe repository, also placing the scientists
and officials employed on Iraqs unconventional weapons programs
out of reach in hidden locations. In this clandestine operation he
was almost certainly assisted by Russian and French intelligence
services, who share Assads ambition to deny the United States any
proof that its war on Iraq was just.
No seasoned observer in the region would be in the least surprised
to see American military action launched shortly against Iraqi and
other targets in Syria or even Lebanon.
Syrian foreign minister Sharah: If US attacks Syria, Israel will
also get hurt.
