DAMASCUS, May 14: Tensions are rising in a Syrian border region where fearful residents are being kept awake by the roar of US warplanes pounding nearby targets in Iraq, witnesses said on Saturday. Two months ago Syria bolstered its troop presence in the region, which lies close to the Iraqi border town of Al Qaim, where US forces have been attempting to root out guerillas loyal to the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
“The situation is very tense at the border and we have been worried for a week due to the bombing by the US air force on the Qaim region and the Iraqi city of Houssayba, close on the Syrian border. We hear very clearly the noise of the bombing,” said one local witness, Basem al Debs. “Syrian military vehicles full of soldiers went to the border two months ago, to the village of Hirre bordering on Qaim to reinforce forces already deployed there.” The US army launched ‘Operation Matador’ on May 7 in Al Qaim, described as a stronghold of Zarqawi, Iraq’s most wanted man who is blamed for a string of attacks on the occupation forces.
US commanders charge that much of the guerillas’ weaponry and foreign volunteers are smuggled in through the area. Syria has been accused by US and Iraqi authorities of not doing enough to halt foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq, charges vehemently denied by Damascus. “We have not been able to sleep all night due to the bombing on the city of Houssayba and by planes passing until 7am,” complained another witness, Adib al Debs.
He said that inhabitants of the Syrian border villages were ‘living in an atmosphere of war. We are very worried when we hear the American bombing on areas of the Iraqi-Syrian border’. Debs explained The US army has confirmed that bombing raids have taken place against guerilla positions around Al Qaim and Houssayba, but have said no ground operation has been launched in the town of Al Qaim itself.
So far nine US marines have lost their lives in the assault, which according to the US military has resulted in the deaths of 100 foreign fighters.
Adib Debs, the witness, pointed to the village of Baghuz, which sits astride the border, as an example of the worries that are fretting local inhabitants. “Half of the residents are Syrian and the other half Iraqis, they have intermarried and possess lands in both parts of the town.”
A trip organized by the ministry of information for Arab and foreign journalists to the border region was to have taken place on Saturday but was called off owing to the tensions in the area.
The offensive comes amid continued strains in relations between the United States and Syria.
Earlier this month President George Bush renewed a raft of sanctions against Syria first imposed last year, alleging that Damascus supported terrorism and undermined US efforts to stabilize and rebuild Iraq. —AFP
