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US in recent firefights with Syria::Cambodia
WASHINGTON - A series of clashes in the past year between U.S. and Syrian troops, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians, has raised The firefight, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops along the border with Iraq, was the most serious of the conflicts with President Bashar al-Assad's forces, according to U.S. and Syrian officials. It illustrated the dangers facing U.S. troops as Washington tries to apply more political and military pressure on a country that President Bush last week labeled one of the "allies of convenience" with extremists. One of Bush's most senior aides, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that so far U.S. military forces in Iraq had moved right up to the border to cut off the entry of insurgents, but he insisted that they had refrained from going over it. But other officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as U.S. efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, those operations have spilled over the border â sometimes by accident, sometimes by design. Some current and former officials add that the U.S. military is considering plans to conduct special operations inside Syria, using small covert teams for intelligence gathering. The broadening military effort along the Iraqi-Syrian border has intensified as the Iraqi constitutional referendum scheduled for today approaches, and as frustration mounts in the Bush administration and among senior U.S. commanders over their inability to prevent foreign radical Islamists from engaging in suicide bombings and other deadly terrorist acts inside Iraq. Increasingly, officials say, Syria is to the Iraq war what Cambodia was during the Vietnam War: a sanctuary for fighters, money and supplies to flow over the border and, ultimately, a place for a shadow struggle. Quagmire!!! In the summer firefight, several Syrian troops were killed, leading to a protest from the Syrian government to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, according to U.S. and Syrian officials. A military official who spoke with some of the Rangers who took part in the incident said they had described it as an intense firefight, although it could not be learned whether there had been any U.S. casualties, nor could the exact location of the clash be learned. In a meeting at the White House on Oct. 1, senior aides to Bush considered a variety of options for further actions against Syria, apparently including U.S. officials say Bush has not yet signed off on a specific strategy and has no current plan to try to oust Assad, in part for fear of who might take over. The United States is not planning large-scale military operations inside Syria "There is no finding on Syria," said one senior official, using the term for presidential approval of a covert action program. "We've got our hands full in the neighborhood," added a senior official. Posted by: Spegum Spavirt2887 2005-10-16 |
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