A would-be suicide bomber captured on the doorstep of a mosque in northern Iraq is a Syrian linked to al-Qaida in Iraq, police said Saturday.
The details emerged a day after Ammar Afif Hamada, 19, was arrested by guards who became suspicious as he approached the main gate of a Shiite mosque in the disputed city of Kirkuk.
His capture could give authorities leads on insurgent operations in northern Iraq and smuggling routes used to bring people from Syria — long considered one of the main pipelines for insurgents recruits from across the region.
I know that just because the man is Syrian doesn't mean Syria sent him, but he can come to Iraq because Syria allows jihadis to transit Syrian territory. And the Syrians are happy to assist this traffic. Remember that the killings in Iraq didn't go down because the Iranians and Syrians suddenly decided to behave. The killings dropped because we beat them back. And now they are trying to regroup and continue the killing. We will gain useful information from that man.
This will end when we can inflict pain on the Syrians and Iranians sufficient to dissuade them. In time, the Iraqis will feel confident enough--with American forces nearby--to strike Syrian targets in retaliation.
Or if the mullahs in Iran are overthrown, the Syrian threat will end. Without Iranian backing, Syria would not fight us.
UPDATE: Jane's (via email updates) notes the continued flow of suicide bombers through Syria:
Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) uses freelance cross-border traffickers to bring in the foreign volunteers who have been responsible for many, if not most, of the country's suicide bombings in the past. The number of foreign fighters entering the country from Syria has fallen since 2007, and the main infiltration corridor has shifted further to the northwest[.]
Syria is clearly happy to do nothing and let the freelancers fuel the jihadi violence in Iraq. One day, Iraq will return the favor if Damascus doesn't stop this.
