The Syrian Foreign Ministry has denied that Iraq was receiving any military equipment from Syria.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that shipments of equipment, such as night-vision goggles, had been crossing into Iraq from Syria and that Damascus would be held accountable for such ”hostile acts”.
But a statement from the Syrian Foreign Ministry said: ”What Donald Rumsfeld said about the transportation of equipment from Syria to Iraq is an attempt to cover up what his forces have been committing against civilians in Iraq.”
The statement said US-led forces were ”committing ugly war crimes against unarmed civilians in Iraq, where hundreds of children and women were being killed and houses were being demolished”.
It added: ”After the failed expectations of a swift and clean victory, Rumsfeld was attempting to justify the failure of his forces… by accusing others of smuggling equipment to Iraq”.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahaf denied in an interview with the Lebanese LBC television channel that Iraq was receiving any military equipment from his country. – Guardian Unlimited Â