Syrian frontier becomes frontline in Iraqi conflict

"He was fetching water from the tank when the Americans shot him. He died immediately. We didn't even take him to the hospital," the farmer said.

Qabbor, who has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in a Damascus court, said the fatal shots were fired from a concrete watch tower on the edge of a sprawling American military base inside Iraq a few hundred meters to the east.

Normally a neglected backwater, Syria's frontier region has found itself a simmering frontline in Iraq's bloody conflict and subject to unusual international scrutiny.

American and Iraqi officials accuse Syria of failing to take adequate action to prevent militants from entering Iraq. They say the Syrians are doing little to stop former Iraqi Baathist officials from directing and funding the insurgency from their safe haven in Damascus.

On Monday, U.S. President George W. Bush warned Syria to stop meddling in Iraq's internal affairs and threatened further sanctions.

Last week, Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said that "terrorism in Iraq is orchestrated by Iranian intelligence, Syrian intelligence and Saddam [Hussein] loyalists."

Still, the influence of foreign fighters on the insurgency may have been exaggerated given the small numbers of Arab volunteers that have been captured or killed in Iraq. Furthermore, of Iraq's four Arab neighbors, only Syria is regularly singled out for criticism, even though fighters are suspected to have entered from Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

"It's been blown out of proportion," said a diplomat in Damascus. "There are individuals helping people enter Iraq but I don't think it is at a strategic level with the knowledge and assistance of the government and I don't think it's very well organized."

A kilometer-and-a-half to the north of Hari, the Euphrates river winds lazily through the desert landscape, its course marked by a 3-kilometer-wide swathe of green farm land, palm trees and bulrushes. On either side of the lush Euphrates valley lies the desert running from the Turkish border in the north to Jordan in the south - 600 kilometers of drab featureless stony wilderness, the border marked only by a berm of bulldozed sand.

In response to U.S. and Iraqi pressure, the Syrian authorities since September have raised and strengthened the berm and added rows of barbed wire and in some places flood lights.

But securing the border completely is a near impossible task. The border police are under-funded and lack equipment and training.

Furthermore the anticipated cooperation on intelligence-sharing between Syrian and Iraqi border authorities has not materialized.

"To be honest it's not just the Syrians' fault. The Syrians are relatively well organized unlike the Iraqis," said a Western diplomat in Damascus.

Iraqi border posts are routinely attacked by insurgents. Many of the positions have been abandoned by their Iraqi defenders and burned down.

Syrian officials say they are doing what they can to secure the border but insist it is impossible to block all infiltrators.

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