Iraq has deployed thousands of reinforcements along its border with Syria to prevent insurgents from crossing the desert frontier, as the government said on Friday it had provided Syria with evidence linking Iraqis there to bombings.
Extra police were sent to the border this week on the prime minister’s orders in response to the government’s assertion that former members of late dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party based in Syria planned and financed last month’s attacks against the foreign and finance ministries, said Major General Tariq Youssef, the police commander in western Iraq.
Iraq is seeking the extradition of two suspects, but Syria has refused, demanding to see proof of their involvement. The dispute has strained relations between the two countries and again put Syria on the defensive over accusations it is not doing enough to stop cross-border attacks.
The Aug. 19 truck bombings outside the government ministries in Baghdad killed about 100 people. Iraq has blamed an alliance between al-Qaeda in Iraq and the outlawed Baath Party.
Turkey, which has experience as a regional mediator, has tried to soothe the dispute between the two countries, which have both recalled their ambassadors.
“We have given them the evidence that we have through the Turkish foreign minister and we are waiting for their response,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said.
Iraq’s post-Saddam government has for years sought the handover of former Baath Party officials who fled to Syria after the 2003 US-led invasion. Iraqi officials say Damascus allows them to live and engage in political activity in Syria.
One of the Iraqis linked to the bombings last month is Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed, who was high up in the Baath Party and has been near the top of Iraq’s most-wanted list for several years. The other suspect is Satam Farhan.
Iraq’s foreign minister gave a US congressional delegation led by Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan a tour of the shattered ministry building on Friday. Crunching over shattered glass, the group walked up to the edge of the water-filled bomb crater in front of the building’s shredded front facade.
The US delegation also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who a day earlier accused Syria of sheltering the bombing suspects and appealed to the UN Security Council to investigate and set up an international tribunal to try those accused of involvement.
On Friday, al-Maliki stressed to the visiting Americans that Iraq would not tolerate interference by any nation in Iraq’s affairs, according to a statement from his office.
US and Iraqi officials have said fewer fighters are crossing into Iraq from Syria. In the past two months, Iraqi security forces have arrested two Syrians and one Jordanian trying to sneak across, said Youssef, the police commander in the former insurgent stronghold of Anbar Province.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in