Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in a television interview some of the people attacking U.S. forces in Iraq are slipping across the border from Saudi Arabia.
U.S. officials have long suspected some militants have come through Iran and Syria and has warned both against interference in Iraq but have not previously singled out Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally because of its vast oil reserves. However, Riyadh's cooperation on fighting terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States has left some U.S. officials disappointed.
'The borders are quite porous, as you'd imagine, and the fact that we've captured a certain number of foreign fighters in Baghdad and around Iraq indicates that the ways that these people are getting into the country is from Iran and from Syria and from Saudi Arabia,' Armitage said in an interview with Arabic-language television channel Al-Jazeera.
'I'm not in any position to assert that the governments of Iran or Syria or Saudi Arabia are in any way responsible. But, as a minimum, I can state that they're not -- these fighters -- are not being stopped at the borders, and this is something that causes us a great deal of concern,' he added according to a transcript of the interview provided by Al-Jazeera.
Bush said adding more foreign troops to the occupation force would increase the ability to protect Iraqi infrastructure and let U.S. forces take the battle to their enemies. 'That will help free up our hunter teams,' he said."
U.S. officials have long suspected some militants have come through Iran and Syria and has warned both against interference in Iraq but have not previously singled out Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally because of its vast oil reserves. However, Riyadh's cooperation on fighting terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States has left some U.S. officials disappointed.
'The borders are quite porous, as you'd imagine, and the fact that we've captured a certain number of foreign fighters in Baghdad and around Iraq indicates that the ways that these people are getting into the country is from Iran and from Syria and from Saudi Arabia,' Armitage said in an interview with Arabic-language television channel Al-Jazeera.
'I'm not in any position to assert that the governments of Iran or Syria or Saudi Arabia are in any way responsible. But, as a minimum, I can state that they're not -- these fighters -- are not being stopped at the borders, and this is something that causes us a great deal of concern,' he added according to a transcript of the interview provided by Al-Jazeera.
Bush said adding more foreign troops to the occupation force would increase the ability to protect Iraqi infrastructure and let U.S. forces take the battle to their enemies. 'That will help free up our hunter teams,' he said."
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