Najaf police chief refuses transfer to Baghdad amid Syria row

[Barrett808]

The police chief of the central Iraqi city of Najaf refused an order to move to Baghdad, saying the transfer was provoked by his comments accusing Syria of being behind a recent bombing in the Shiite holy city.

"I refuse the order to move me to Baghdad and I will stay in Najaf until after the elections," Major General Ghaleb al-Jazairi told AFP, referring to the January 30 national poll.

"I did not accuse Syria of being behind the attack but the suspects that we arrested confessed to this and I in turn handed them over to the prime minister's office."

The December 19 bombing in Najaf killed 52 and wounded more than 140.

Syria has called the accusations "irresponsible" and the official news agency SANA quoted on Sunday Iraq's interior minister Falah al-Naqib saying that Jazairi's comments were "unfounded" and that "he would be moved to Baghdad before he would be ultimately fired" during a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Ghazi Kanaan in Tunisia.

Jazairi assumed a high profile during the US-Iraqi assault in August against the Mehdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr by taking a tough stance on dealing with the armed group.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=6&u=/afp/20050103/wl_mideast_afp/iraqnajafunrestsyria_050103173218

[Tempest]

1. They are coming in from Saudi Arabia

Large numbers of Al Qaeda fighters are still crossing freely from Saudi Arabia into Southern Iraq, according to senior military officials in Basra.

Terrorists and weapons continue to flow into the country as it gears up for elections, said Colonel Jouke Spolestra, in charge of security sector reform in the southern Iraqi provinces.

Col Spolestra, of the Royal Netherlands Navy, said that despite regular military patrols and raids on suspected insurgent strongholds, British-led forces had failed to halt the trafficking in personnel and arms.

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