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US says US forces engaged Syrians in combat in Baghdad
US forces engaged Syrian nationals in combat in Baghdad overnight, killing many of them, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. Rumsfeld's assertions in US television interviews echoed similar comments by Army General Tommy Franks, the US commander, but both men stopped short of saying what Washington might do about it. "In a firefight, a lot of them got killed last night," Rumsfeld said of the Syrians in an interview with CBS television. Other foreign nationals also have engaged US forces in Baghdad, but the largest number were from Syria, he said in an earlier interview with NBC television. Somehow, we guessed that, didn't we? It was not clear whether they had any connection to the Syrian government, he said. "People were busy fighting them. They weren't asking their biographies," he said. "I was born in a log cabin I helped my father build... FIRE! I met my mother at a high school dance... FIRE!" Franks in an interview with Fox television referred to them as "mercenaries," and said some had been taken prisoner. Syrian fighters have entered Iraq by the busload, Rumsfeld said. "Some we stopped. The ones we could find, we turned them around and sent them back. And some we've impounded and put into enemy prisoner-of-war camps," he said. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-04-13 |
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