(Middle East Newsline) U.S. officials said Bashar Assad's regime used the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria to relay hundreds of millions of dollars to Saddam Hussein loyalists in Iraq to finance the Sunni insurgency. The Commercial Bank held more than $1 billion in Saddam regime accounts on the eve of the war in March 2003. Over the last 18 months Damascus transferred up to $800 million of Saddam's assets to his senior aides, including ex-Iraqi vice president Izzet Ibrahim Al Douri, identified as the chief financier of the Sunni insurgency.
2004-11-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive