Iraq insurgents reject sending arms, fighters to Syria
Suadad al-Salhy, Reuters, Feb 22 2012
Two Islamist militant groups in Iraq have rejected a call by al Qaeda to aid Syrian rebels, saying sending weapons and fighters across the border would only worsen the conflict. The Islamic Army in Iraq, composed of Sunni Arabs and former Iraqi army officers said it would support the Syrians morally in their fight against Assad, but would not dispatch fighters. A senior leader told Reuters on Wednesday:
We are against sending fighters, money and weapons to Syria. We are waiting for the Syrian people to decide their fate but we are supporting their aspirations morally. We do not want to interfere so as not to allow anyone to steal their revolution as al Qaeda has done. We don’t want to give the regime a pretext that can be used against the rebels.
Iraq said last week it had reinforced security along its Syrian border to prevent arms smuggling, after reports that weapons and fighters were crossing into Syria’s 600 km border with Iraq. Iraqi officials and arms dealers have reported an influx of weapons and Sunni Muslim insurgents into Syria from Iraq, but so far it has not seemed to be an organised and sustained flow. Sheikh Khalid al-Ansari, a senior leader with the al-Rashideen Army, said his group supported the fall of Assad but warned that arming Syria’s opposition would create an increasingly sectarian conflict. Ansari told Reuters:
We support the Syrian revolution and the fall of the Assad regime 100%. But we do not accept sending weapons, money and fighters to Syria because this will lead to the creation of a sectarian war that will target innocent people similar to what happened in Iraq and we do not want to repeat the same experiment.
Insurgent group chief arrested on Syria-Iraq border
AFP, Feb 22 2012
Iraqi security forces on Wednesday arrested the head of Ansar al-Sunna, a Sunni insurgent group said to be linked to Al-Qaeda, the counter-terrorism chief for Anbar province said. Brig-Gen al-Dulaimi told AFP:
Iraqi forces today arrested the leader of Ansar al-Sunna, Walid Khaled Ali, as he tried to illegally infiltrate into Iraqi territory from Syria. He tried to cross on foot near Al-Walid border post into Anbar province in western Iraq. He was one of the most prominent suspects for terrorism cases. He killed many of the sons of Anbar and fled to Syria after the announcement of the tribal fight against Al-Qaeda in 2007.
Ansar al-Sunna is a Salafist group that has claimed several attacks against US and Iraqi security forces. It is an offshoot of the Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam. Dulaimi said the group is part of the Islamic State of Iraq, Al-Qaeda’s front organisation here. Iraq’s interior ministry meanwhile said on Monday:
Border guards were able to fend off groups of smugglers and infiltrators who were trying to cross the border from Syria into Iraq.
