Sealing Syria's desolate border

A squad of American soldiers jog into view and fan out, rifles raised, on the Iraq side of a 100-yard trash-strewn no-man's land separating the Syrian and Iraqi border gates.

Col. Ali Shammar, the Syrian customs officer in charge of this remote desert border post, is visibly agitated by the presence of the nearby soldiers.

"Be careful, do not go closer. They will shoot at us," he tells a group of reporters on a rare visit to the frontier post.

Colonel Shammar has good reason to be alarmed. This desolate border has become a simmering frontline in the violent conflict in Iraq.

American and Iraqi officials routinely accuse Syria of failing to take adequate action to prevent militants from entering Iraq. They say the Syrians are doing little to stop former Iraqi Baathist officials from directing and funding the insurgency from their haven in Damascus.

In a press conference Monday, when asked about foreign fighters entering Iraq through Syria, President Bush said that countries bordering Iraq should "respect the political process" there.

Last week, Bush warned Syria and Iran that "that meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq is not in their interest." His comments followed strong criticism by Iraqi Interim Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan, who said that "terrorism in Iraq is orchestrated by Iranian intelligence, Syrian intelligence, and Saddam loyalists."

But the influence of foreign fighters on the insurgency may have been exaggerated, given the small numbers of Arab volunteers who have been captured or killed in Iraq. And of Iraq's four Arab neighbors, only Syria is regularly singled out for criticism, even though fighters are suspected to have entered from Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.

"It's been blown out of proportion," says a European diplomat in Damascus. "There are individuals helping people enter Iraq but I don't think it is at a strategic level with the knowledge and assistance of the government, and I don't think it's very well organized."

A mile to the north of the border crossing, the Euphrates River winds through the desert, its course marked by a two-mile swath of farmland, palm trees, and bull rushes. On either side of the Euphrates valley lies the desert running from the Turkish border in the north to Jordan in the south - 400 miles of drab wilderness, the border marked only by a berm of bulldozed sand.

In response to US and Iraqi pressure, the Syrian authorities since September have raised and strengthened the berm and added rows of barbed wire and in some places flood lights.

But securing the border completely is nearly impossible. The border police are underfunded and lack equipment and training. Furthermore, the anticipated cooperation on intelligence-sharing between Syrian and Iraqi border authorities has not materialized, diplomats say.

"To be honest it's not just the Syrians' fault. The Syrians are relatively well organized, unlike the Iraqis," says a Western diplomat in Damascus.

Page: 1 | 2