Damascus detains 6 al-Qaida members carrying USD 23 million
Syria, Local, 12/22/2003

The US daily Washington Post said on Saturday that Syria arrested last week six Arab citizens presumed to have ties with al-Qaida organization carrying a sum of money estimated by intelligence at 23.5 million dollars.

The paper quoted at its Internet website officials in terrorism fighting that it is believed it is the first time in the world war against terrorism to detain Arab citizens carrying such large sum of money. A high ranking official said quoting these reports "they had arrested 8 persons having with them USD 23.5 million." An American official said that Syria did not permit, despite of that. American investigators to meet the detainees. He added that Damascus had not officially notified Washington of detaining them.

However, intelligence source consider that confiscating this sum will greatly affect al-Qaida's budget. Officials indicated that despite the fact that Syria prevented Washington from meeting the detainees, this is a positive initiative that Syria is making in such detention acts.

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