Rangers! Lead the way!

Officials: Syria Could Be Site of Next Struggle

By JAMES RISEN & DAVID E. SANGER
The New York Times

WASHINGTON -- A series of clashes in the last year between U.S. and Syrian troops, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians, has raised the prospect that cross-border military operations may become a dangerous new front in the Iraq war, according to current and former military and government officials.

The firefight, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops along the border with Iraq, was the most serious of the conflicts with President Bashar al-Assad's forces, according to U.S. and Syrian officials.

It illustrated the dangers facing U.S. troops as Washington tries to apply more political and military pressure on a country that President Bush last week labeled one of the "allies of convenience" with Islamic extremists.

One of Bush's most senior aides, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that so far U.S. military forces in Iraq had moved right up to the border to cut off the entry of insurgents, but he insisted that they had refrained from going over it.

But other officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as U.S. efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, those operations have spilled over the border -- sometimes by accident, sometimes by design

Some current and former officials add that the U.S. military is considering plans to conduct special operations inside Syria, using small covert teams for cross-border intelligence gathering.

The broadening military effort along the Iraqi-Syrian border has intensified as the Iraqi constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday approaches, and as frustration mounts in the Bush administration and among senior U.S. commanders over their inability to prevent foreign radical Islamists from engaging in suicide bombings and other deadly terrorist acts inside Iraq.

Covert military operations are among the most closely held of secrets, and planning for them is extremely sensitive politically as well, so none of those who discussed the subject would allow themselves to be identified. They included military officers, civilian officials and people who are otherwise actively involved in military operations or have close ties to Special Operations forces.

In the summer firefight, several Syrian troops were killed, leading to a protest from the Syrian government to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, according to U.S. and Syrian officials.

A military official who spoke with some of the Rangers who took part in the incident said they had described it as an intense firefight, although it could not be learned whether there had been any U.S. casualties. Nor could the exact location of the clash, along the porous and poorly marked border, be learned.

Rest of the story.

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aljazeera.com's version: Here is an excerpt-

"Former U.S. officials have recently revealed that the U.S. Army is considering conducting special operations inside Syria, using small teams for intelligence gathering.

Repetitive clashes between U.S. and Syrian forces on the Iraqi border over the past year, according to former military and government officials may become a new front in the Iraq war.

The firefight, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops demonstrates the dangers facing U.S. troops....."

If several Syrian troops were killed, as the American version notes and the al Jazeera version fails to mention, then it would seem to me that the danger is all to the Syrians.