Syria under pressure from militancy

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. invasion of Iraq created an opportunity for al-Qaida to expand into the Levant, leaving the regime in Damascus under considerable strain, analysts say.

An analysis by The Jamestown Foundation in Washington, D.C., says the 2003 invasion presented al-Qaida with an opportunity in the region not available under Saddam Hussein.

Osama bin Laden had cooperated with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood while taking refuge in Sudan, creating a financial link between Damascus and al-Qaida.

Regimes in the Middle East, in an effort to channel militant pressures elsewhere, also allowed scores of fighters to enter Iraq through its porous Syrian border to attack U.S. troops. Syrian President Bashar Assad saw the strategy as an opportunity to attack U.S. interests while dispensing with growing militancy at home.

But under pressure from Washington, Assad is controlling the borders, leaving Damascus in the position to deal with the domestic militant threat. Unlike his father, who was able to moderate the Islamists, the current president has been unable to control rising aggression at home. In what Syrian officials described as a rare act of terror, a suicide bomber killed at least 17 in the outskirts of Damascus Sept. 17.

With more than a half-million angry Iraqi refugees in Syria, the analysis says, the militant threat to the regime in Damascus is mounting, leaving the regional vulnerable to a growing level of discontent.