DAMASCUS, Syria, July 7 (UPI) -- Syrian security forces have arrested two more members of an alleged terrorist group.
The announcement from the Syrian Ministry of Information follows the capture of two Jordanians following a clash outside Damascus Monday in which a Syrian security officer was killed. The dawn skirmish on Mount Qassioun overlooking the capital resulted in the arrests of Sharif al-Semadi and the wife of his fugitive brother, al-Jazeera.net said.
The official Syrian Arab News Agency, Sana, named the arrested suspects as Muhammad al-Semadi, a 30-year-old Jordanian, and Rehab Shehab, a woman whose nationality was not disclosed.
Sana quoted an official source at the Information Ministry as saying that security forces were still pursuing other members of what it called a "terror and armed robbery group".
Some suspects were said to have worked as bodyguards for ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, al-Jazeera said.
In the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Syrian security provided much valuable information to the United States on al-Qaida and other extreme Islamist groups. But since the U.S. occupation of Iraq, U.S and allied Iraqi officials have increasingly accused Syria of harboring bases for anti-American guerrillas in the Iraq insurgency.
