BAGHDAD – Iraqi security forces seized 200 explosive belts along the Syrian border Wednesday, a police spokesman said, reinforcing Baghdad’s claims that its western neighbor isn’t doing enough to stop the flow of fighters and weapons to al-Qaida in Iraq.
The belts were found during a search of a truck that had crossed into Iraq from Syria at the Waleed border station, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.
“When the truck was searched, 200 explosives belts were found in it,” the general said. He said the driver was detained but he would not give his name or nationality.
Iraqi and U.S. authorities have long complained that Syria is not doing enough to stem the flow of weapons, ammunition and foreign fighters into Iraq. Syria insists it is trying to stop the flow but that it is impossible to seal off the long desert border.
But U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said that 60 to 80 foreign fighters enter Iraq “in any given month” – 70 percent of them through Syria. He said up to 90 percent of the suicide attacks in Iraq were carried out by “foreign-born al-Qaida terrorists.”
He said the U.S. command expected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters “to lash out and stage spectacular attacks to reassert themselves” after U.S. troops’ gains in their stronghold of Baqouba, located northeast of Baghdad.
Early Wednesday, U.S. and Iraqi forces drove out dozens of insurgents who had attacked and seized control of a remote village northeast of Baghdad. Residents of Sherween had telephoned Iraqi officials a day earlier pleading for help, saying armed villagers were trying to defend themselves against the attackers.
The U.S.-Iraqi forces killed 20 militants and captured 20 others in the battle overnight, the U.S. military said.
A German woman who was kidnapped in Iraq was freed after 155 days in captivity, but her son is still being held. Hannelore Krause, 62, told Al-Arabiya television that her adult son, Sinan, would be killed if German troops do not leave Afghanistan.
The mother and son, who disappeared Feb. 6, were shown twice in videos released by an insurgent group calling itself “Arrows of Righteousness.” The group threatened to kill the hostages if Germany did not begin withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan within 10 days.
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