WASHINGTON,
April 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - In a fresh escalating
confrontation, the United States accused Syria Sunday, April 13, of
possessing chemical weapons, charged that its nationals had engaged U.S.
troops in Baghdad and warned against allowing senior Iraqi leaders to
escape through its territory.
"We
believe there are chemical weapons in Syria," President George W.
Bush.
Stopped
short of threatening U.S. action against Damascus, Bush's comments to
reporters in the White House were clearly intended as a “warning” to
Syria, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Asked
by a reporter whether military action might be taken against Syria, Bush
said: "Syria just needs to cooperate with us."
"It
must not harbor any Baathists, any military officials who need to be
held to account for their tenure" in Iraq, Bush told reporters at
the White House, reported.
"Bad"
Mistakes
This
came shortly afterwards U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that
many Syrian nationals were killed in fighting overnight in the Iraqi
capital and others have been taken prisoner.
"There
are a number of non-Iraqis who are in the country, particularly in
Baghdad we find ... A lot from Syria, most from Syria it appears,"
he said.
Asked
if they were involved in fighting, Rumsfeld said, "Absolutely. In
firefights, a lot of them got killed last night."
Rumsfeld
also reiterated charges that senior Iraqis have escaped to Syria, and
that some have stayed there while others have moved on to other
countries.
He
declined to say what Washington might do if Saddam Hussein were found in
Syria.
"The
last thing I would do would be to discuss that," he said in a
television interview, stressing that if the missing Iraqi president
turned up in the neighboring state, it would show that "Syria would
have made an even bigger mistake."
"The
(Syrian) government is making a lot of bad mistakes, a lot of bad
judgments in my view," Rumsfeld said in an interview on CBS's
"Face the Nation."
U.S.
intelligence has previously claimed, without providing any proof, that
Syria possesses stockpiles of the nerve gas sarin and is believed to
have an active biological program.
Rumsfeld
said earlier that the United States had reports that some of Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction may have been sent to a neighboring country,
but would not identify the country.
Ready
For "Inspections"
 |
|
"The
(Syrian) government is making a lot of bad mistakes, a lot of bad
judgments in my view," Rumsfeld
|
The
Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, which has openly called
for the defeat of U.S. and British forces by Iraq, earlier dismissed
charges from Rumsfeld that it allowed night vision goggles and other
military aid into Iraq.
The
Arab country's officials emphatically denied that it was harboring
members of the regime or had weapons of mass destruction, and said
Washington was seeking to divert attention from the chaos and
lawlessness that has followed the collapse of the Iraqi regime.
"We
will not only accept the most rigid inspection regime, we will welcome
it heartily," said Imad Moustapha, the number two in the Syrian
embassy in the United States.
Rumsfeld
declined to comment on a report in the Washington Times
that two top Iraqi scientists involved in its weapons of mass
destruction program had taken refuge in Syria.
Saddam
heads a U.S. list of more than 50 Iraqis wanted by U.S.-led forces.
Targeted
in at least two "decapitation" air strikes during the
23-day-old war, his fate remains a mystery.
U.S.
Army General Tommy Franks, the commander of the U.S. forces, said U.S.
forces have samples of Saddam's DNA.
He
said he believed it would be possible to identify Saddam, "unless
remains were removed" at the site of recent heavy bombings in a
residential area where Saddam was believed to be meeting with his top
intelligence officials.
"The
appropriate people with the appropriate forensics are doing the
appropriate checks," Franks said in an interview with CNN.
Contrary
to U.S. expectations, Iraqi forces used no chemical or biological
weapons in the war, and so far none have been found.
"Unwise"
Also
Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Damascus it would be
"very unwise if, suddenly, Syria becomes a haven for all these
people who should be brought to justice, who are trying to get out of
Baghdad."
