Syrian Strike Aimed at al Qaeda's Coordinator in Syria
By Bill Roggio
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/10/syrian_strike_aimed.phpThe US military incursion into Syria was aimed at the senior leader of al Qaeda's extensive network that funnels foreign fighters, weapons, and cash from Syria into Iraq, a senior intelligence official told The Long War Journal.
US special operations hunter-killer teams entered Syria in an attempt to capture Abu Ghadiya, a senior al Qaeda leader who has been in charge of the Syrian network since 2005. US intelligence analysts identified Ghadiya as the leader of the Syrian network, The Washington Post reported in July. Ghadiya was identified as a “major target” by the US military in February 2008.
The raid to capture Ghadiya occurred in the town of Sukkariya near Abu Kamal in eastern Syria, just five miles from the Iraqi border. Four US helicopters crossed the border and two of the helicopters landed to drop off special operations forces, who then proceeded to clear structures.
Nine people were reported killed and 14 were wounded. Syrian officials claimed innocent construction workers and women and children were killed in the raid.
US officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not comment if Ghadiya was killed or captured during the raid.
The US military has officially refused to confirm or deny the raid took place. But several senior intelligence officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject told The Long War Journal that the raid was indeed carried out inside Syria.
The raid is the first of its kind against Syria. The US has been striking regularly at Taliban and al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan’s tribal areas since the beginning of September.
Ghadiya, whose real name is Badran Turki Hishan al Mazidih, is an Iraqi from the northern city of Mosul. Ghadiya succeeded Suleiman Khalid Darwish, a Syrian national and lieutenant of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the former leader of al Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by US forces in June 2006. US forces killed Darwish in a raid in Al Qaim in June 2005.
Serving Syria notice
The cross-border raid took place just three days after Major General John Kelly, the commander of Multinational Force - West, said Syria is "problematic." Kelly said the Syrian the government refused to secure the border and al Qaeda operatives are openly working inside Syria.
"The Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi intelligence forces feel that al Qaeda operatives and others operate, live pretty openly on the Syrian side," Kelly said. "And periodically we know that they try to come across."
Kelly said that while al Qaeda has been diminished in the al Qaim region, it still remains a threat to Iraqi and US forces. A May 11 raid in Al Qaim by al Qaeda teams resulted in the death of 11 Iraqi policemen.
The Iraqi border police, with the help of the US military, are "redoubling" efforts to stand up the Iraqi border guards. The military is also rebuilding a berm along the Syrian border in an effort to stop infiltration into Iraq from Syria. "We're doing much more work along the Syrian border than we've done in the past," Kelly said.
The Syrian Network
Syria has long been a haven for al Qaeda as well as Baathists who fled the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Terrorists and insurgents took advantage of the long, desolate, and unsecured border, which stretches more than 460 miles along Iraq's western provinces of Anbar, Ninewa, and Dohuk.
At the height of the Iraqi insurgency, an estimated 100 to 150 foreign fighters poured into Iraq from Syria each month. Operations in Anbar and Ninewa have pushed that number down to 20 infiltrators a month, according to the US military.
Wanted insurgent leaders, such as Mishan al Jabouri, openly live in Syria. Jabouri, a former member of the Iraqi parliament, fled to Syria after being charged with corruption for embezzling government funds and for supporting al Qaeda. From Syria Jabouri ran Al Zawraa, a satellite television statement that aired al Qaeda and Islamic Army of Iraq propaganda videos showing attacks against US and Iraqi forces.
Al Qaeda established a network of operatives inside Syria to move foreign fighters, weapons, and cash to support its terror activities inside Iraq. An al Qaeda manual detailed ways to infiltrate Iraq via Syria. The manual, titled The New Road to Mesopotamia, was written by a jihadi named Al Muhajir Al Islami, and discovered in the summer of 2005.
The Iraqi-Syrian border was broken down into four sectors: the Habur crossing near Zakhu in the north; the Tal Kujik and Sinjar border crossings west of Mosul; the Al Qaim entry point in western Anbar; and the southern crossing at Al Tanf west of Rutbah near the Jordanian border. Islami claimed the Al Tanf and Habur crossing points were too dangerous to use, and Al Qaim was the preferred route into Iraq.
The US military learned a great deal about al Qaeda's network inside Syria after a key operative was killed in September of 2007. US forces killed Muthanna, the regional commander of al Qaeda's network in the Sinjar region.
During the operation, US forces found numerous documents and electronic files that detailed "the larger al-Qaeda effort to organize, coordinate, and transport foreign terrorists into Iraq and other places," Major General Kevin Bergner, the former spokesman for Multinational Forces Iraq, said in October 2007.
Bergner said several of the documents found with Muthanna included a list of 500 al Qaeda fighters from "a range of foreign countries that included Libya, Morocco, Syria, Algeria, Oman, Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom."
Other documents found in Muthanna's possession included a "pledge of a martyr," which is signed by foreign fighters inside Syria, and an expense report. The pledge said the suicide bomber must provide a photograph and surrender their passport. It also stated the recruit must enroll in a "security course" in Syria. The expense report was tallied in US dollars, Syrian lira, and Iraqi dinars, and included items such as clothing, food, fuel, mobile phone cards, weapons, salaries, "sheep purchased," furniture, spare parts for vehicles, and other items.
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point later conducted a detailed study of the "Sinjar Records," which was published in July 2008. The study showed that al Qaeda had an extensive network in Syria and the Syrian government has allowed their activities to continue.
"The Syrian government has willingly ignored, and possibly abetted, foreign fighters headed to Iraq," the study concluded. "Concerned about possible military action against the Syrian regime, it opted to support insurgents and terrorists wreaking havoc in Iraq."
Al Qaeda established multiple networks of "Syrian Coordinators" that "work primarily with fighters from specific countries, and likely with specific Coordinators in fighters’ home countries," according to the study. The Syrian city of Dayr al Zawr serves as a vital logistical hub and a transit point for al Qaeda recruits and operatives heading to Iraq.
A vast majority of the fighters entering Iraq from Sinjar served as suicide bombers. The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point estimated that 75 percent conducted suicide attacks inside Iraq.
CIA Led Mystery Syria Raid That Killed Terrorist Leader
By Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/54828.htmlA CIA-led raid on a compound in eastern Syria killed an al Qaida in Iraq commander who oversaw the smuggling into Iraq of foreign fighters whose attacks claimed thousands of Iraqi and American lives, three U.S. officials said Monday.
The body of Badran Turki Hishan al Mazidih, an Iraqi national who used the nom de guerre Abu Ghadiya, was flown out of Syria on a U.S. helicopter at the end of the operation Sunday by CIA paramilitary officers and special forces, one U.S. official said.
"It was a successful operation," a second U.S. official told McClatchy. "The bottom line: This was a significant blow to the foreign fighter pipeline between Syria and Iraq."
A senior U.S. military officer said the raid was launched after human and technical intelligence confirmed that al Mazidih was present at the compound close to Syria's border with Iraq. "The situation finally presented itself," he said.
The three U.S. officials, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the operation was classified, declined to reveal other details of the raid. A CIA spokesman declined to comment.
The senior military officer said that U.S. intelligence had been tracking al Mazidih for some time, and that "the more we learned about him and how he works" the higher he rose on the U.S. most-wanted list.
"He is the guy who produced the most prolific of the foreign fighters networks," said the first U.S. official, adding that the extremists he smuggled into Iraq were responsible for attacks that "killed thousands of Iraqis and our own U.S. forces."
On Feb. 28, the Treasury Department announced a freeze on any U.S. assets belonging to al Mazidih and three of his associates, charging that they were smuggling "money, weapons, terrorists, and other resources through Syria to al Qaida in Iraq, including to (al Qaida) commanders."
The Treasury Department announcement identified al Mazidih as a Sunni Muslim who was born in the late 1970s in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and was a lieutenant of al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006. He was believed to be living in the Syrian town of Zabadani.
"Former al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi appointed Badran (al Mazidih) as the group's Syrian commander for logistics in 2004," the Treasury said. "After Zarqawi's death, Badran began working for the new AQI leader, Abu Ayyub al Masri. As of late-September 2006, Badran took orders directly from Masri, or through a deputy.
"Badran obtained false passports for foreign terrorists, provided passports, weapons, guides, safe houses, and allowances to foreign terrorists in Syria and those preparing to cross the border into Iraq," it said. "As of the spring of 2007, Badran facilitated the movement of AQI operatives into Iraq via the Syrian border. Badran also directed another Syria-based AQI facilitator to provide safe haven and supplies to foreign fighters," the Treasury said. "This AQI facilitator, working directly for Badran, facilitated the movement of foreign fighters primarily from Gulf countries, through Syria into Iraq."
The Bush administration, which for years has expressed frustration over what it charges have been Syria's lackluster efforts to stop foreign Islamic fighters from crossing into Iraq, refused to publicly acknowledge the operation.
It wasn't immediately clear whether an order that President Bush signed in July allowing U.S. commandos from Afghanistan to attack a suspected terrorist base in Pakistan also authorized cross-border operations in other countries.
Pentagon officials were tight-lipped about the operation. But they were quick to defend the decision to cross the border, with one saying that if nations that sponsor terrorist networks won't go after them, "we will."
The raid into Syria on Sunday has ignited a major diplomatic storm, with Iran joining in Syria's condemnation of the U.S.
The Syrian government charged that eight civilians, including four children, died in what it described as a daylight attack on al Sukkari farm in eastern Syria by U.S. forces that flew across the border from Iraq in four helicopters.
"The Americans do it in the daylight. This means it was not a mistake. It is by blunt determination," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Moallem charged Monday at a news conference in London. "For that, we consider this criminal and terrorist aggression."
The Syrian Foreign Ministry Monday summoned Maura Connelly, the ranking U.S. diplomat in Damascus, to receive an official protest, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
The Iraqi government defended the raid. Government spokesman Ali al Dabbagh said that Syria had refused to hand over foreign fighters who'd taken refuge there after killing 13 Iraqi border guards.
However, al Dabbagh said, a proposed accord governing the status of U.S. forces in Iraq "will limit this type of operation. It will limit the United States from using Iraqi land to attack others."
Syrians 'Clearly Have Harbored' Al Qaeda in Iraq, Says U.S. General
By Alex Kingsbury
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/iraq/2008/10/27/syrians-clearly-have-harbored-al-qaeda-in-iraq-says-us-general.htmlThe U.S. military launched its first known raid into Syria on Sunday after several years of frustration over Damascus's unwillingness—or inability—to shut down a regular flow of militants into Iraqi territory.
At least seven people were killed when U.S. helicopters struck a construction site near the town of Abu Kamal on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq.
The Syrian government said the victims were construction workers, but U.S. military officials, who were slow to acknowledge the attack, said it was aimed at fighters linked to the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The border has been the site of growing tension, as more and more foreign fighters have been pushed out of Anbar province, which is largely quiet after years of harboring elements of Iraq's Sunni insurgency.
U.S. Maj. Gen. John Kelly, who is responsible for Anbar province, which extends from Baghdad to the Syrian border, says that Syria has become "a sanctuary" for AQI.
He spoke with U.S. News in Fallujah last week, before the strike into Syria, about the efforts by U.S. marines stationed in western Iraq to secure the border against infiltration from AQI. Excerpts:
What's happening along the Syrian border?
The Syrian border is a problem. It is the last frontier. The Syrians clearly have harbored AQI, allowed them to live over there and go back and forth. It's a sanctuary. It used to just be a conduit for foreign fighters. Now, they allow them to live over there, and they come in [to Iraq] and do their dirty deeds.
What's being done to halt that?
Several months ago, we started an attempt to close the border. Working with the police, we started moving U.S. forces out there and working with the Iraqi border patrol. We started building a physical barrier to at least slow down the vehicles that cross. We worked out with the sheiks what it was that they'd been doing for millennia in terms of smuggling. They don't consider it smuggling because they don't recognize the border and their cousins live on the other side. They just see it as trading with them. So, we said: What is it that you need to be able to do to cross? We don't want to get in your way—if it's sheep or whatever. If you want to go visit cousins, have at it. The sheiks become allies because they appreciate the fact that we've not stopped the semilegal transfer of things. In return, they are telling us things about what goes on. Also, from the Jordanian border to the Euphrates River, we've built a berm. We're starting that north of the border now.
Have marines been moved there as well?
We've reinforced the border with a training team, small teams of marines. We've worked with the security forces also. The first line of defense is the berm, then the border police, then the police from the border to Baghdad. The Iraqi police along the way stop vehicles and check paperwork. At the three border points of entry, they check paperwork and search vehicles. If there's a guy who wants to get to the front of the line and gives you 20 bucks and you don't search his vehicle, then the guy who takes the 20 bucks is not a terrorist, but there may be 10 terrorists in the vehicle. We're working on that.
Has the Syrian border stopped you from going after insurgents?
We don't go across the border, for sure.
Do they flee there for sanctuary?
Yes. Foreign fighters flow in. They're hard to catch because they come in on bogus passports or real passports. They are not terrorists until they do something. We think most of the foreign fighters do come in legally through the points of entry. So, they either forge papers or have real papers, and we don't know who they are. They [AQI] have done cross-border raids and killed Iraqis. The biggest mistake they made was a cross-border raid on the second of May and murdered 11 Iraqi policemen. They cut their heads off, a sickening thing. It was a huge mistake. We know the guy who did it, AQI guy. Kind of a big dog who works with Syrian intelligence. Some of the guys who were killed were former boyhood friends of this terrorist, and it was a revenge killing because of who the police were, not what they are now.
U.S. Says Raid in Syria Targeted Smuggler
By Marwan Makdessi
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49P2N520081027?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=trueA raid by U.S. forces inside Syria on Sunday is believed to have killed a major smuggler of foreign fighters into Iraq, a U.S. official said on Monday, as Syria condemned the attack as "terrorist aggression."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity about the raid, in which residents and Syrian officials said U.S. troops landed by helicopter and killed eight civilians.
A second U.S. official said U.S. forces had targeted only people they considered a threat and that women and children were alive at the site when they left.
The Pentagon and the White House have refused to officially confirm or deny U.S. involvement in the incident, which alarmed France and Russia. Both countries called on the United States to respect Syria's territorial sovereignty.
If confirmed, it would be the first U.S. military strike inside Syria since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Syria says four helicopters attacked al-Sukkari farm in the Albou Kamal area in eastern Syria, close to the Iraqi border, and that U.S. soldiers stormed a building there.
The first U.S. official said the raid targeted Abu Ghadiya, a former lieutenant of al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2006.
"It was a successful operation," the U.S. official said by telephone. "He (Abu Ghadiya) is believed to be dead. This undoubtedly will have a debilitating effect on this foreign fighter smuggling network."
'CRIMINAL, TERRORIST' AGGRESSION
The Bush administration, which will leave office in January after the U.S. presidential election on November 4, blames Damascus for not doing enough to stem the flow of al Qaeda fighters and other insurgents into Iraq.
But Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on a visit to London it was not possible for Syria to patrol the entire length of its long border with Iraq.
He accused the United States of trying to derail recent diplomatic overtures between Europe and Syria.
"The Americans do it in the daylight. This means it is not a mistake, it is by blunt determination. For that we consider this criminal and terrorist aggression," he told a news conference.
Reuters Television footage showed a small fenced farm and a truck riddled with bullet holes. Blood stained the ground.
Syrian state television showed a building site and a nearby tent with food and blankets and spent bullets laying around.
The official Syrian news agency SANA quoted a survivor, Souad al-Jasim, as saying U.S. soldiers fired on her and her children in the tent.
"Then they opened fire on the workers on site," she said.
Jasim's husband was killed in the attack and one of her children wounded. Thousands of people attended a funeral held for those killed in the raid, SANA said.
The second U.S. official said U.S. military forces acted in support of "another agency" in conducting the operation. The official declined to elaborate but that description could suggest the involvement of the CIA.
He described Abu Ghadiya was a "bad dude" who ran one of the most prolific networks bringing foreign fighters and suicide bombers into Iraq.
SYRIA WANTS INVESTIGATION
Moualem said Syria would ask the United States and Iraq for an investigation into the raid, which the Iraqi government said targeted insurgents responsible for attacks inside Iraq.
"We put the responsibility on the American government and the need to investigate and return back to us with the result and explanation why they did it," Moualem said.
Asked whether the Syrians would use force if the Americans conducted a similar raid in future, Moualem said: "As long as you are saying if, I will tell you if they do it again ... we will defend our territories."
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the attack was launched against "terrorist groups operating from Syria against Iraq," including one which had killed 13 police recruits in a border village.
"Iraq had asked Syria to hand over this group, which uses Syria as a base for its terrorist activities," Dabbagh said.
Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdel Majeed said last week his country "refuses to be a launching pad for threats against Iraq."
Russia, whose invasion of Georgia in August drew strong criticism from the United States, accused Washington of fueling tensions in the Middle East and said it viewed the raid with "great concern".
"It is obvious that such unilateral military actions have a sharply negative effect on the situation in the region," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Paris said it deplored the loss of civilian life.
"France calls for restraint and underlines its attachment to the strict respect of the territorial integrity of states," President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said in a statement.