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Eastern Syria is becoming the new al Qaeda haven
US intelligence officials are concerned that Syria is becoming the al Qaeda haven, as the terror group becomes increasingly intertwined with Ba’athist groups operating from Iraq 's
neighbor to the west.
Last year US strike in Syria "decapitated" al Qaeda's facilitation network
Al Qaeda leader Abu Ghadiya was killed in last year strike inside Syria , a senior US military intelligence
official was quoted saying. But US special operations forces also inflicted a major blow to al Qaeda's foreign fighter network based in Syria . The entire senior leadership of Ghadiya's network was also killed in the raid, the
official stated.
Ghadiya was the leader of al Qaeda extensive network that funnels foreign fighters, weapons, and cash from Syria into Iraq along the entire length of the Syrian border. Ghadiya was first identified as
the target of the raid inside Syria late last year. The Associated Press reported Ghadiya was killed in the raid then.
Several US helicopters entered the town of town of Sukkariya near Abu Kamal in eastern Syria , just
five miles from the Iraqi border. US commandos from the hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88 assaulted the buildings sheltering Ghadiya and his staff.
The Syrian government has protested the attack, describing it as an
act of "criminal and terrorist aggression" carried out by the US . The Syrian government claimed eight civilians, including women and children, were killed in the strike. But a journalist from The Associated Press who
attended the funeral said that only the bodies of seven men were displayed.
The US official said there were more killed in the raid than is being reported. "There are more than public numbers [in the Syrian press]
are saying, those reported killed were the Syrian locals that worked with al Qaeda," the official said. "There were non-Syrian al Qaeda operatives killed as well."
Those killed include Ghadiya's brother
and two cousins. "They also were part of the senior leadership," the official stated. "They're dead. We've decapitated the network." Others killed during the raid were not identified.
The strike is
thought to have a major impact on al Qaeda's operations inside Syria . Al Qaeda's ability to control the vast group of local "Syrian coordinators" who directly help al Qaeda recruits and operatives enter Iraq has been
"crippled."
Ghadiya's staff
The identity of Ghadiya and several members of his senior staff have been known since February 2008 when the US Treasury identified Ghadiya, his brother, and his two cousins
as members of the network. The US Treasury department publicly designated Ghadiya, his brother, Akram Turki Hishan Al Mazidih, and his two cousins, Ghazy Fezza Hishan Al Mazidih and Saddah Jaylut Al Marsumis as senior members
of al Qaeda's foreign facilitation network.
Ghadiya, whose real name is Badran Turki Hishan Al Mazidih, was an Iraqi from Mosul . He was working as an al Qaeda logistics coordinator in Syria since 2004, when he was
appointed to the position by Abu Musab al Zarqawi. After Zarqawi's death, he "took orders directly, or through a deputy" from Abu Ayyub al Masri, al Qaeda's current leader in Iraq ,
Ghazy Was Ghadiya's
"right-hand man," the Treasury stated. "As second-in-command, Ghazy worked directly with [Ghadiya], managed network operations, and acted as the commander for [Ghadiya's] AQI [al Qaeda in Iraq ] network when
[Ghadiya] traveled."
Akram directed al Qaeda operations along with Ghadiya in the Al Qaim region right on the border with Syria . He smuggled weapons from Syria into Iraq , and ordered "the execution of AQI's
enemies," Treasury stated. "Akram also ordered the execution of all persons found to be working with the Iraqi Government or US Forces."
Marsumi was an al Qaeda financier who "facilitated the
financing and smuggling of AQI foreign fighters from Syria into Iraq ." He helped Syrian suicide bombers enter Iraq , and also wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to Ghadiya to facilitate operations.
All four men
lived openly inside Syria . The US Treasury identified Ghadiya, Ghazy, and Akram as living in Zabadani. Marsumi lived in the village of Al Shajlah .
A senior US general and the Iraqi spokesmen both noted that al Qaeda
leaders were openly living inside Syria , and the Syrian government did nothing to shut down the network.
"The attacked area was the scene of activities of terrorist groups operating from Syria against Iraq ,"
Ali al Dabbagh , Iraq 's spokesman told Reuters. " Iraq had asked Syria to hand over this group which uses Syria as a base for its terrorist activities."
Major General John Kelly, the commander of Multinational
Force - West, described Syria as "problematic" during a briefing on Oct. 23. "The Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi intelligence forces feel that al Qaeda operatives and others operate live pretty openly on the
Syrian side," Kelly said. "
Background on al Qaeda's Syrian facilitation network
Syria has long been a haven for al Qaeda as well as Baathists who fled the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Terrorists and
insurgents took advantage of the long, desolate, and unsecured border, which stretches more than 460 miles along Iraq 's western provinces of Anbar, Ninewa, and Dohuk.
At the height of the Iraqi insurgency, an estimated
100 to 150 foreign fighters poured into Iraq from Syria each month. Operations in Anbar and Ninewa have pushed that number down to 20 infiltrators a month, according to the US military.
Wanted insurgent leaders, such as
Mishan al Jabouri, openly live in Syria . Jabouri, a former member of the Iraqi parliament, fled to Syria after being charged with corruption for embezzling government funds and for supporting al Qaeda. From Syria Jabouri ran
Al Zawraa, a satellite television station that aired al Qaeda and Islamic Army of Iraq propaganda videos showing attacks against US and Iraqi forces.
Al Qaeda established a network of operatives inside Syria to move
foreign fighters, weapons, and cash to support its terror activities inside Iraq . An al Qaeda manual detailed ways to infiltrate Iraq via Syria . The manual, titled The New Road to Mesopotamia , was written by a jihadi named
Al Muhajir Al Islami, and discovered in the summer of 2005.
The Iraqi-Syrian border was broken down into four sectors: the Habur crossing near Zakhu in the north; the Tal Kujik and Sinjar border crossings west of Mosul ;
the Al Qaim entry point in western Anbar; and the southern crossing at Al Tanf west of Rutbah near the Jordanian border. Islami claimed the Al Tanf and Habur crossing points were too dangerous to use, and Al Qaim was the
preferred route into Iraq .
The US military learned a great deal about al Qaeda's network inside Syria after a key operative was killed in September of 2007. US forces killed Muthanna, the regional commander of al
Qaeda's network in the Sinjar region.
During the operation, US forces found numerous documents and electronic files that detailed "the larger al-Qaeda effort to organize, coordinate, and transport foreign terrorists
into Iraq and other places," Major General Kevin Bergner, the former spokesman for Multinational Forces Iraq, said in October 2007.
Bergner said several of the documents found with Muthanna included a list of 500 al
Qaeda fighters from "a range of foreign countries that included Libya, Morocco, Syria, Algeria, Oman, Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom."
Other documents found
in Muthanna's possession included a "pledge of a martyr," which is signed by foreign fighters inside Syria , and an expense report. The pledge said the suicide bomber must provide a photograph and surrender their
passport. It also stated the recruit must enroll in a "security course" in Syria . The expense report was tallied in US dollars, Syrian lira, and Iraqi dinars, and included items such as clothing, food, fuel, mobile
phone cards, weapons, salaries, "sheep purchased," furniture, spare parts for vehicles, and other items.
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point later conducted a detailed study of the "Sinjar
Records," which was published in July 2008. The study showed that al Qaeda had an extensive network in Syria and the Syrian government has allowed their activities to continue.
"The Syrian government has
willingly ignored, and possibly abetted, foreign fighters headed to Iraq ," the study concluded. "Concerned about possible military action against the Syrian regime, it opted to support insurgents and terrorists
wreaking havoc in Iraq ."
Al Qaeda established multiple networks of "Syrian Coordinators" that "work primarily with fighters from specific countries, and likely with specific Coordinators in fighters’
home countries," according to the study. The Syrian city of Dayr al Zawr serves as a vital logistical hub and a transit point for al Qaeda recruits and operatives heading to Iraq .
A vast majority of the fighters
entering Iraq from Sinjar served as suicide bombers. The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point estimated that 75 percent conducted suicide attacks inside Iraq .
Al Qaeda today has refocused its efforts to build an
infrastructure in eastern Syria after its network in Iraq was decimated by Iraqi and US security forces from 2007 to 2009, and now the organization is partnering with former Ba’athists from Saddam Hussein’s regime.
"A major concern to the intelligence community is that eastern Syria will begin to look like northwestern Pakistan ," where al Qaeda has joined forces with the Taliban and directs attacks to destabilize Afghanistan ,
a senior US military intelligence official said.
In late 2008, the situation in eastern Syria came to a head when US special operations forces struck at al Qaeda's facilitation network in the town of Sukkariya near Abu
Kamal in eastern Syria , just five miles from the Iraqi border. US troops killed Abu Ghadiya, al Qaeda's senior facilitator, and his senior staff during the October 2008 raid.
After Ghadiya was killed, al Qaeda sent a
senior ideologue from Pakistan to Syria to partner with a dangerous operative who runs the network that funnels foreign fighters, cash, and weapons into western Iraq . Sheikh Issa al Masri is thought to have entered Syria in
June 2009, where he paired up with Abu Khalaf, a senior al Qaeda operative who has been instrumental in reviving al Qaeda in Iraq 's network in eastern Syria and directing terror operations in Iraq , a US intelligence official
reported.
Sheikh Issa is believed to be based in Damascus and is protected by the Mukhabarat, Syria 's secret intelligence service. The two al Qaeda leaders are thought to be behind some of the most deadly attacks in
Iraq , including the deadly bombings in Baghdad in August and October that targeted government ministries and killed more than 230 Iraqis and wounded nearly 1,000 more.
The Iraqi government has implicated both al Qaeda
and former Ba’athists as being responsible for these suicide attacks. Just one week after the August bombings, the Iraqi government asked Syria to turn over senior Ba'athists Sattam Farhan and Mohammad Younis al Ahmed, who were
accused of ordering the attacks.
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for both the August and the October attacks in statements released on the Internet.
The top US military commander in Iraq said recently that al
Qaeda in Iraq has "transformed significantly" and has begun to work more closely with former Ba'athist groups that still are fighting the Iraqi government and US forces.
"Al Qaeda in Iraq has transformed
significantly in the last two years," General Raymond Odierno told reporters in Baghdad last week. "What once was dominated by foreign individuals has now become more and more dominated by Iraqi citizens."
"There's still a small foreign element to al Qaeda," Odierno continued. "There are some who used to be Sunni rejectionists or ex-Ba’athists who are involved in this because of course they don't want the
government to succeed."
Al Qaeda in Iraq and Ba'athist insurgent groups are known to have cooperated in the past. Between 2006 and 2007, units of the Islamic Army of Iraq, a group made up largely of former
Ba'athists and soldiers, were subsumed into al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq. Al Qaeda created the Islamic State of Iraq in the fall of 2006 to put an Iraqi face on its activities.
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