Iraq: Al-Qaeda members headed to Syria to launch attacks
Syrian fighters hold their weapons at a checkpoint controlled by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) at Epin, in the north-western province of Idlib, on April 15, 2012. The Syrian government blamed the massacre in Houla on anti-government forces on May 31, 2012, while activists maintained that it was pro-government forces that carried out the killings of 108 people.
Iraqi officials today said Al-Qaeda members are entering Syria in order to launch attacks from the strife-ridden country, reported Reuters.
"We have solid information and intelligence that members of al Qaeda terrorist networks have gone in the other direction, to Syria, to help, to liaise, to carry out terrorist attacks," India's ZeeNews quoted foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari telling reporters in Baghdad today.
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Al-Qaeda loyalists recently claimed dozens of attacks across Syria, reported the Associated Press.
Zebari's claim, which could not be independently confirmed, is likely to bolster arguments by embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that the anti-government revolt he is fighting there is the work of terrorists, said Reuters. Rebel forces deny this.
However, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently said Al-Qaeda was behind two suicide car bombings last month in Damascus that killed over 50 people, according to Reuters.
Although Assad used brutal methods to try to quell the uprising when it first began over a year ago, the two sides remain locked in a bloody conflict that the UN says has taken at least 10,000 lives.