Gunmen kill at least 40 Syrians being sent home from Iraq

[Bosonic]

Source: Reuters

Unidentified gunmen on Monday killed at least 40 Syrian soldiers and government employees who were being taken to the Syrian border by Iraqi authorities after fleeing into Iraq from a Syrian rebel attack, Iraqi officials said.

The attack on the convoy carrying the Syrians occurred in Iraq's westerly Anbar province, they said.

The Iraqi officials said some 65 Syrian soldiers and government officials had handed themselves over to Iraqi authorities on Friday after anti-government rebels seized the Syrian side of the Yaarabiya frontier crossing.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/04/us-syria-crisis-iraq-idUSBRE9230MH20130304

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. Syrian soldiers ambushed inside Iraq. Are we getting to a regional war yet?

Who ambushed them? Iraqi Sunni rebels? Syrian Sunni rebels?

[harmonicon]

2. Good ol' rebels! Why wouldn't we give them arms?! (nt)

[Bosonic]

3. Iraq ambush kills 48 'unarmed, wounded' Syrian soldiers

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Armed men from Syria carried out an ambush in western Iraq on Monday killing 48 unarmed Syrian soldiers being transferred to the border and nine Iraqi guards, the defence ministry said.

The ambush in Anbar province, a day after a key Syrian opposition group accused Iraq of interfering in Syria, threatens to entangle Baghdad in its neighbour's civil war -- something it has tried hard to avoid.

"This confirms our fears of the attempt of some to move the conflict to Iraq, but we will face these attempts by all sides with all of our power," Ali Mussawi, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's spokesman, said of the ambush.

The defence ministry said in an online statement that the ambush was carried out "by a terrorist group that infiltrated into Iraqi territory coming from Syria," and put the death toll at 48 Syrian soldiers and nine Iraqi guards.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gs3a0RHy4S3hjFiwq_95EQ_EpAYQ?docId=CNG.13806fc3065a74af6c1813fd622588b4.1a1