(New York Daily News) - Richard Z. Chesnoff According to Cofer Black, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, Damascus has begun allowing al Qaeda operatives not only to enter Syria, but to stay there and use it as a base of international operations. "We clearly don't have the full support of the Syrian government on the al Qaeda problem," says Black. "They have allowed al Qaeda personnel to come in and virtually settle in Syria with its knowledge and support." According to Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute, "Bashar [Assad] is reported to have integrated elements of Hizballah's paramilitary units into the Syrian Army in Lebanon and has in fact supplied the group with heavy arms of its own (in addition to Iranian arms transshipped via Damascus), including a new 220-mm. rocket."
2003-05-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive