Syria: alarm for possible Al Qaeda role, Annan spokesperson

Damascus gives UN list of ten presumed terrorists killed

18 May, 16:13

(ANSAmed) - GENEVA, MAY 18 - The spokesperson for Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League Special Envoy on the Syrian crisis has spoken with great preoccupation of a ''third element'' appeared in Syria, other than the opposition and the government.

Commenting on the statement by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who today spoke of a possible involvement of Al-Qaeda in the recent Damascus attacks, Ahmad Fawzi, spokesperson for Annan, was however more cautious. The presence of a third party in Syria is ''worrying'', said Fawzi. ''We still haven't been able to ascertain the origin of who this group is but we're working on it'', he said.

According to Fawzi, there are signs of ''activity'', accidents, explosions which appear to come from other sources compared to the governmental or opposition sources. It is all to be verified, we must be very cautious'' he added.

Today the authorities in Damascus have handed the UN a list of ''ten foreign terrorists recently killed'' in the country.

According to the pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat, within this list handed over by Ibrahim Jaafari, the UN representative for Syria, are Egyptians, Algerians, Tunisians, Saudis, plus a Frenchman and a British citizen.

The list, quoted by the London based newspaper and owned by a Saudi prince, says that eight out of ten entered Syria illegally from Turkey and that another two entered from Lebanon. The ten ''were killed while they were carrying out attacks against the Syrian regime'', the list reports, indicating the place of their death. The list does not report the date of their decease.

(ANSAmed).

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