Iraqi premier warns of weapons being smuggled from Syria

Associated Press

BAGHDAD

Iraq’s prime minister warned Saturday that weapons and fighters flowing into Syria are making their way to Iraq, as a rising tide of violence sweeps across the country.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that weapons provided by some countries to the Syrian rebels and foreign fighters attempting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad are ending up in Iraq.

“The weapons provided to those killers in Syria have been smuggled to Iraq, and those wolves that came from different countries to Syria are now sneaking into Iraq,” he said during a youth gathering.

In Saturday’s violence, gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint just south of Baghdad, killing four soldiers and wounding four others.

In an attack on a checkpoint near Muqdadiyah, a town 60 miles north of Baghdad, three soldiers were killed and one was wounded, police said.