Syria cracks down on Islamist militants - officials

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian security forces have killed scores of suspected Islamist militants, many of them linked to al Qaeda in Iraq, in a crackdown which has escalated in recent weeks, Syrian officials said on Thursday.

A Baath Party member familiar with the unpublicised operations said at least one senior al Qaeda figure was arrested last month among hundreds of detained militants.

"The al Qaeda man is non-Syrian. Remember that Syria has experience in this sort of terrorism," the Baath Party member said, referring to a ferocious campaign by the state against the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s.

Several suspected militants, including one wearing an explosives belt, and a senior security officer were killed recently in a clash in a suburb of Damascus where many Iraqi refugees live, the Baath party member said.

"The bomber was in a public place. He was under surveillance and a catastrophe was avoided".

Five people were killed in another confrontation in central Syria, the official said, and similar operations have been conducted around the country this year targeting militants in Syria and others crossing its border with Iraq.

Unlike sporadic operations reported by state newspapers last year, this campaign has not been covered in the official media. But Western diplomats in Damascus said they had seen credible reports suggesting a coordinated crackdown was taking place.

The U.S. military has also acknowledged Syria is doing more to stop fighters crossing its border into Iraq.