Smuggling across Syria border seen funding insurgency

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SINJAR, Iraq -- When U.S. soldiers reached this stretch of Iraq's border with Syria, some expected to face off against foreign fighters they thought would be crossing into the country in trucks packed with weapons.

Instead, they found caravans of mules crossing the border without their human masters, a tactic of smugglers in Syria who load contraband on dozens of mules or donkeys and set them free to amble down familiar paths.

"They can just smack the mules on the rear and they'll meet them at a rallying point" across the border, said 1st Lt. Scott Weaver, of Susanville, Calif., an intelligence officer with the 1st Squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which patrols this area.

Though smugglers here traffic mostly in gasoline and cigarettes -- sometimes up to $200,000 worth of cargo in one trip -- military officials say the trade helps fund the insurgency that has gripped cities to the east, such as Tal Afar and Mosul.

U.S. and Iraqi officials frequently call on Syria to close its side of the border. But the smuggling problem also has roots on the Iraqi side. Some Iraqis in the area consider their ties to the government second to those with their fellow tribesmen, who live on stretches of land that cover both countries.

"It's not a geographic boundary. It is a political boundary where the British and French divvied things up" after World War I, said Capt. James Pavlich, an intelligence officer from Pinetop, Ariz.

In one Sunni Arab Iraqi border town, the local sheik also oversees villages in Syria, often crossing the border to visit family, U.S. soldiers said.

"[Insurgent] forces within their towns are still their people. There is tremendous cultural hesitation to provide information to an outside force," said Capt. Dan Ruecking of Elmhurst, Ill., a battery commander in the 1st Squadron.

The U.S. military has focused on stopping human trafficking of insurgents willing to launch suicide attacks inside Iraq. Fifteen of those arrested crossing the border in this area since May have confessed to trying to join the insurgency, said officials. They estimate that insurgents pay $150 to $200 to local handlers for help with passage.

Iraqi border guards say other illegal crossing tactics include bribing Syrian guards to fire their weapons or stage fake arrests to attract the attention of Iraqi guards while smugglers quickly sneak across.

"The same Ba'ath Party is also in Syria, so they're helping the bad guys inside Iraq," said Garby Nasser, an Iraqi border guard, referring to the party that ruled Iraq for decades under Saddam Hussein and that still rules Syria.

Though much of the area along Iraq's border with Syria is desert flatlands, parts have gullies and even a ridge of mountains that help conceal border crossers from U.S. armored vehicles and helicopters that peer out at night with high-power observation equipment.

Even the legal border crossing point to the north in the city of Rabiah is a concern for U.S. commanders. Several Iraqi guards were recently fired for corruption.