| Syria protests televised confessions of 'agents' in Iraq
DAMASCUS (AFP) -
Damascus has lodged a formal complaint with Iraqi authorities over two Syrians who confessed on television to being involved in Iraq's bloody insurgency, the official Sana agency reported.
The Syrian interests section in Baghdad made "an official protest against unfounded allegations broadcast by Iraqi state television presenting confessions of two Syrian citizens," last Thursday, said Sana.
Iraqi state television on Thursday aired the two men's confessions in a show called "Terrorists in the Grip of Justice".
In the programme, alleged Syrian intelligence colonel Abdul Rahman, nicknamed Abu Abdu, spoke of his life undercover in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where he posed as a leather merchant.
Ahmed Farra and Mohammed Abdul Rahman "were forced under duress to say they were Syrian army intelligence officers, whereas they are leather merchants who went to Iraq several times to buy merchandise," said Sana.
"Syria calls for the swift freeing of the two Syrians and asks that they be allowed to return to their country."
In the controversial programme, Abu Abdu said he had directed a 20-man cell and took orders from Syrian intelligence officer Brigadier General Ali Ahmed al-Mohammed.
"I used to receive orders ... to attack the Americans and terrorize them so that the situation is never calm in Iraq. Otherwise, the United States will start thinking of occupying Syria," he said.
The Iraqi government has long accused Syria of backing the nearly two-year insurgency in Iraq, with funding and agents, charges Damascus strenuously denies.
Last month, a half-brother of ousted president Saddam Hussein, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikrit, accused of masterminding Iraq's deadly insurgency from Syria, was arrested.
Syria is believed to have been handed him over to the Iraqi government, amid heavy US and Iraqi pressure for Damascus to cooperate with Baghdad. | |
