US conducts raid in Syria, led by CIA (AQ official killed)
On Sunday the United States conducted a raid in Syria to hunt down and kill Abu Ghadiya, an AQ militant who was helping to bring foreign fighters into Iraq. This smuggling of fighters in has been a tremendous problem that US forces have faced and it is good that they’ve been able to deal with Ghadiya.
It is unclear what involvement Syria had in the raid itself.
”A CIA-led raid on a compound in eastern Syria killed an al Qa’eda in Iraq commander who oversaw the smuggling into Iraq of foreign fighters whose attacks claimed thousands of Iraqi and American lives, three US officials said Monday.
“The body of Badran Turki Hishan al Mazidih, an Iraqi national who used the norm de guerre Abu Ghadiya, was flown out of Syria on a US helicopter at the end of the operation Sunday by CIA paramilitary officers and special forces, one US official said.
“ ‘It was a successful operation,’ a second US official told McClatchy. ‘The bottom line: This was a significant blow to the foreign fighter pipeline between Syria and Iraq.’
A senior US military officer said the raid was launched after human and technical intelligence confirmed that al Mazidih was present at the compound close to Syria’s border with Iraq. ‘The situation finally presented itself,’ he said.”
Conservative bloggers are praising the move but saying it is about 5 years too late, we should have been hitting Syria early on in the process. One of the problems with this kind of claim, however, is that the information that comes out of the Middle East is so sketchy, it’s hard to know what to believe. To wit (from the AP):
(more below the fold)
A U.S. official said the raid by U.S. forces is believed to have killed a major al Qaeda operative, known as Abu Ghadiya, who helped smuggle foreign fighters into Iraq.
But do we really know what happened?
We do know that following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Syria, which feared it was next on Washington’s list of rogue states for regime change, permitted the transit of Jihadi volunteers for the Iraqi insurgency fighting the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
We also know that there have been similar attacks by U.S. forces near the Iraqi border, and also in Afghanistan and across the Afghan-Pakistan border. In at least two instances these operations have mistakenly hit a wedding party and civilian houses despite claims they were al Qaeda hideouts.
We also know that the U.S. military has at least twice in the past carried out attacks across the Syrian border but this was the first time the obsessively secretive Syrian regime has gone public with it and allowed camera crews to reach the area and film the aftermath.
Damascus is resentful because, as part of its attempt to improve its image internationally, it has clamped down on al Qaeda-inspired Islamist militants. It feels its efforts are not being recognised by Washington and that the Jihadis are seeking reprisals.
“I can tell you and explain that the terrorist explosion in Damacus in September happened because we tightened our border with Iraq. They (Jihadis) wanted revenge for what we are doing. Unfortunately they are not the only revenging party. Of course the Americans tried to ‘reward’ us by carrying out this (attack) ,” said Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.
Given the credibility of all parties in this affair it is going to be difficult to get to the the bottom of what happened.
The sovereignty question (as always) pops its ugly head again:
If a state cannot maintain control over and responsibility for the people on its territory, it has forfeited sovereignty over that area.
In the case of Syria, I suspect that some in the Syrian government are complicit in the transit of al Qaeda operatives into Iraq. Syria has a government that makes mischief with its neighbors routinely.
More as this story develops.
