Marines battle influx from Syria

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U.S. Marines have been fighting an aggressive battle along Syria's porous border in recent weeks to stop the flow of Muslim jihadists who come to Iraq to kill Americans and their allies.

Maj. Gen. John Sattler, chief of operations for the U.S. Central Command, yesterday disclosed the stepped-up operation that has escaped the limelight as larger battles were fought in Fallujah and Ramadi in western Iran.

Gen. Sattler said the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which relieved the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in that sector, moved about one-third more troops to the long border region last month. Since then, Marines have used constant patrols and overhead reconnaissance to intercept would-be terrorists.

"They have a substantial-sized force that is dedicated out into that western region that has shut that border region down," Gen. Sattler told reporters at the Pentagon via a conference call from Qatar in the Persian Gulf.

"And it's not only at the legal crossing points, where we do have Iraqi border police, but it's those non-traditional or those longtime deep traditional cross points where foot traffic and some mobile traffic comes across."

The Bush administration realizes it must stop the influx of jihadists into Iraq if it is ever to achieve political stability. Military analysts say the fight-to-the death jihadists perform some of the most gruesome attacks, blowing themselves up to kill scores of allies and, more recently, kidnapping innocent foreigners who have come to Iraq to aid the rebuilding.

The State Department announced yesterday that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has upped the pressure on Syrian President Bashar al Assad to stop the deadly migration.

An oral message from Mr. Powell was delivered by the U.S. ambassador in Damascus, Margaret Scobey, to Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al Shara on Thursday.

The message "was focused on the fact that Syria has a huge stake in the emergence of a unified and stable Iraq," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

"It urged Syria to work closely with the rest of the international community to promote a stable Iraq," he said. "It also made clear to Syria that it needs to control the transit of its border by terrorists and people supporting the insurgents in Iraq. We feel that Syria had taken some steps, but that there is more that they can and should do in that regard."

Some in the Pentagon believe Mr. Assad is allowing -- and possibly encouraging -- foreign jihadists to come to Syria and then enter Iraq. Before and during the war last year, Syria opened its borders to high-ranking Iraqis, including Saddam's two sons, who were later sent back into Iraq where they were killed by U.S. forces.

Gen. Sattler disclosed that the more aggressive border patrols included fierce fire fights between Marines and cells of foreigners in the desert town of al Qaim, a crossroads for incoming jihadists.

"To stop the source, the Marines did put a very intense effort, and it still continues up there," the general said. "We had an extreme amount of success on the front side, meaning that we did find, fix and ultimately finish a number of cells that were out there, that were facilitating this type movement."

Gen. Sattler also seemed to back off an earlier Central Command vow to kill or capture renegade cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr. Sheik al-Sadr has been holed up in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, after earlier this month unleashing his 3,000-man militia on coalition forces. More than 2,000 U.S. troops are on the city's outskirts, but have been warned by moderate Shi'ite clerics not to wage battle in Najaf.

Gen. Sattler made a special point of saying the murder warrant outstanding for Sheik al-Sadr was issued by an Iraqi judge, not the U.S., a sign that the arrest of the cleric is an now an Iraqi decision.

"We know where he is," the general said. "But right now we're letting him continue to marginalize himself and we're not focusing any combat power or combat operations on Najaf."