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At Least 7 Iraqi Leaders Believed to Be in Syria
The United States believes that at least seven senior Iraqi officials are now in Syria, including a figure who is No. 8 on the American wanted list, defense officials said today. The most senior Iraqi identified in American intelligence reports as being in Syria is Kamal Mustapha Abdullah al-Tikriti, secretary of the Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard.In recent days, the State Department has relayed to Syria the names of Iraqi officials believed to be there, with a request that they be expelled. The American military has also stepped up its search efforts in parts of northwestern Iraq near the Syrian border where some senior Iraqi officials are now suspected to be hiding. For more than a week, administration officials including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have said that they believed some Iraqi officials or their families escaped to Syria and perhaps beyond. The only other Iraqis that administration officials said they believed were in Syria and cited by name were Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Tunisia and a former senior intelligence operative, and possibly President Saddam Hussein's first wife, Sajida Khairallah Telfah. The concerns about the flight of Iraqi officials have aggravated an already difficult relationship between the United States and Syria. Bush administration officials have long expressed concern that Syria is developing chemical weapons and about its support for organizations the United States considers terrorist, including Hezbollah and the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has said he plans to travel to Syria later this spring to discuss all those issues with its leader, President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied having granted refuge to any Iraqi officials, and said it had closed its border to Iraqis. American officials say those border posts have indeed been closed in recent days, a step they have characterized as positive, but they say it is possible that Iraqi leaders may be finding other routes into Syria. Of Iraq's six neighbors â the others are Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan â Syria had by far the closest economic and political ties with the Baghdad government, and it is regarded by intelligence officials as being the most likely escape route for fleeing Iraqi officials. Posted by: John Phares 2003-04-19 |
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