Monday, September 07, 2009

Iraq has satellite imagery of Syria training camps

The Iraqi government showed Turkey's FM satellite imagery of training camps used by Iraq's ousted Ba'ath Party in Syria, a Turkish newspaper reported.

Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu was in Baghdad last week for talks on the growing crisis between Iraq and Syria. Iraq had demanded that Syria hands over two senior Ba'ath members suspected of planning the August 19 attacks in Baghdad.

According to the report, Iraq obtained the images of insurgents training camps from a U.S. intelligence service that also monitors PKK (Kurdish separatists) movements in northern Iraq and southern Turkey.

In related news, Iraq's decision to send reinforcements to the Syrian border appears to be part of a greater plan that now has a name. Iraqi newspapers wrote that Iraq launched operation "Iraq Walls" to secure thousands of miles of borders with Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. The operation, which will focus initially on the Syrian border, aims to create concentric security belts to intercept infiltrating militants before they can reach safe havens in urban areas.

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