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U.S. whacks positions on Syrian border
Coalition airstrikes pounded Iraqi positions near Syria on Thursday, as special forces troops monitored the porous frontier to prevent regime loyalists from escaping and fresh fighters from entering Iraq, U.S. officials said. The focus on al-Qaim in far western Iraq highlights its strategic importance to Saddam Hussein's regime. Most Iraqi surface-to-surface missiles fired during the 1991 Gulf War were launched from the area, and U.S. officials say some regime officials have already fled the country through the shortest western route out of Baghdad. In addition, Syrian fighters have turned up on the Iraqi battlefield â one was found hiding in a Baghdad refrigerator on Wednesday â and other Arab fighters have crossed into Iraq via Syria to attack the U.S.-led coalition. Ah, yes. The storied 571st Heavy Refrigerator Battalion. A crack unit, indeed... On Thursday, after Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk, it appeared some were returning the way they came: A correspondent for the al-Jazeera satellite television station at the Syrian-Iraq border said he had met Palestinian and Syrian volunteer fighters at the border who had abandoned their positions in Mosul and were returning home. The fighters said they left the northern city after their Iraqi commanders left them alone in the streets. "See you guys later. Call me if we win." Air Force Maj. Gen. Gene Renuart, operations director at U.S. Central Command, said special forces were now in a position to monitor and ''control'' the flow of traffic into and out of Iraq through the al-Qaim crossing. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-04-10 |
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