Washington - The US military strike in Syria is believed to have killed a top al-Qaeda operative responsible for smuggling of foreign fighters into Iraq, a US newspaper reported Monday, citing a US official. The military has identified the Iraqi individual as Abu Ghadiya, who the US government has previously accused of smuggling militants and weapons into Iraq.
The unnamed US official in a McClatchy Newspapers report described Ghadiya as "one of the most prominent, if not the most prominent, foreign fighter facilitator" operating across the Iraq- yrian border.
The Syrian government and Arab leaders in the region have expressed outrage over the purported US helicopter raid Sunday targeting militants in the town of Abu Kamal. The Syrians said eight innocent civilians, among them children, were killed.
"We consider this an act of criminal and terrorist aggression," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said Monday.
The official did not provide details of the operation because it was classified, and would not speak on the record.
"It was a successful operation," the official told the newspaper. "Abu Ghadiya is believed to have been killed. He was in the compound. The bottom line: this was a significant blow to the foreign fighter pipeline between Syria and Iraq."
The US Treasury Department in February accused Ghadiya and his network of smuggling "money, weapons, terrorists, and other resources through Syria to al-Qaeda in Iraq."
"Abu Ghadiya and his network go to great lengths to facilitate the flow through Syria of money, weapons, and terrorists intent on killing US and coalition forces and innocent Iraqis," Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey had said.
The White House has refused to comment publicly on the raid. "I'm not going to comment on it at all," spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
The United States has accused Syria of failing to halt the flow of al-Qaeda-linked and other militants into Iraq since the 2003 invasion.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed the Syrian Foreign Ministry summoned the US charge d'affaires at the embassy in Damascus, Maura Connelly, "to raise with her these reports of activities in Abu Kamal."
The United States withdrew its ambassador from Syria in 2005.
McCormack said the number of militants entering Iraq through Syria has declined over the years. "That isn't to say that there aren't continuing issues there, in terms of people coming over the border," he said.
