However, Syria has not been directly involved in terrorist operations since 1986, according to the State Department, and it bars Syria-based groups from launching attacks from Syria or targeting Westerners. But Syria has been involved in numerous past terrorist acts and still supports several terrorist groups.
What terrorist groups has Syria supported?
Syriaâ??along with Iranâ??gives the Lebanese militia Hezbollah â??substantial amounts of financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, and organizational aid,â?? according to the State Department. Iranian arms bound for Hezbollah regularly pass through Syria, experts say. Syria, which has effectively occupied and controlled neighboring Lebanon since 1990, has also let Hezbollah operate in Lebanon and attack Israel, often ratcheting up regional tensions.


Syria has also provided training, weapons, safe haven, and logistical support to both leftist and Islamist Palestinian hard-liners. The far-left Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and the fundamentalist Palestinian Islamic Jihad have their headquarters in Damascus, and other terrorist groups, including the Islamist group Hamas and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, maintain offices there.

From 1980 until 1998, the Kurdistan Workersâ?? Party, which sought an independent Kurdish state, used Syria as a headquarters and base of operations against neighboring Turkey.

How did Syria react to September 11?
Syrian President Bashar al-Asadâ??an ophthalmologist who came to power after the death in June 2000 of his long-ruling father, Hafiz al-Asadâ??condemned the September 11 attacks. Syria has also reportedly shared some intelligence with the United States about Osama bin Ladenâ??s al-Qaeda network, even as Asadâ??s regime continues to sponsor terrorist groups. In April 2002, President Bush said that the time had come â??for Syria to decide which side of the war against terror it is on.â??

Does the Syrian government have ties to al-Qaeda?
No. The secular, Arab nationalist Syrian government is hostile to bin Ladenâ??s Islamist network, which Syria views as a terrorist organization; Damascus differentiates between the Sunni Muslim fundamentalists of al-Qaeda and groups it sees as national liberation movements, such as Hezbollah and Palestinian groups. Also, experts say, Syria, which is ruled mostly by Alawites, an often marginalized Shiite sect, is more broadly concerned that Islamists could rally the countryâ??s Sunni majority against the regime. So in the past, the dictatorial Baath Party has dealt harshly with domestic Islamists. In 1982, Asad quashed an uprising organized by the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni group, in the central Syrian city of Hama, bulldozing neighborhoods and killing an estimated 10,000 people. The brutal response to the Hama uprising deterred further Islamist activism in Syria, experts say.

Does Syria cooperate with other state sponsors of terrorism?
Yes. Syria and Iran work together over issues related to Hezbollah. Syria also has a complicated relationship with neighboring Iraq, a regional rival governed by another wing of the Baath Party. Syria joined the U.S.-led coalition to drive Iraq out of Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War, but ties have since warmed somewhat. Syria signed a free trade agreement with Iraq in 2001 and is the primary conduit for Iraqi oil pumped and sold in defiance of U.N. sanctions, thereby providing Saddam Hussein with a large source of illegal income. U.S. pressure on Syria to curtail the flow of Iraqi oil has been unsuccessful.

Does Syria have weapons of mass destruction?
Yesâ??and the ballistic missiles to deliver them, according to U.S. defense and intelligence reports. Syria has an active chemical weapons program, including significant reserves of the deadly nerve agent sarin. Its research programs are trying to develop even more toxic nerve agents. It also has a biological weapons program, but experts say Syria is incapable of producing and â??weaponizingâ?? large quantities of dangerous germs without substantial foreign help. Syria is not currently trying to build or buy nuclear weapons, experts say.

What have U.S.-Syria relations been like since September 11?
Complicated, experts say. Syria and the United States have shared intelligence about al-Qaeda, according to U.S. government sources, and FBI and CIA officials have reportedly traveled to Syria to meet with Syrian intelligence officers. The two countries are also said to be cooperating to gather information about what the September 11 hijacker Muhammad Atta did while researching his university thesis in the Syrian city of Aleppo in the 1990s and about Syrian-born individuals who investigators say were connected to the al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany, involved in the September 11 attacks. Syria has reportedly allowed U.S. officials to put questions to an alleged al-Qaeda associate who itâ??s holding, a Syrian-born German citizen first detained in Morocco.
But Syria has been less forthcoming about terrorist groups closer to home, whose anti-Israel attacks Syria considers legitimate resistance. In April 2002, President Bush warned, â??Syria has spoken out against al-Qaeda. We expect it to act against Hamas and Hezbollah as well.â?? As the Israeli-Palestinian crisis escalated in spring 2002, Hezbollah stepped up its attacks on a disputed border area held by Israel. Vice President Cheney called Asad to complain, and Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Damascus in April 2002 to urge Syria to restrain Hezbollah.

Could Syria be a target in the U.S.-led war on terrorism?
Since September 11, some U.S. commentators and officials have suggested that the war on terrorism include action against Syria. But, perhaps with Syrian cooperation against al-Qaeda in mind, the White House has not yet ranked Syria alongside Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, the three state sponsors of terrorism President Bush has labeled an â??axis of evil.â?? Syriaâ??s inclusion on the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism makes it ineligible for U.S. aid and arms sales and subject to some economic sanctions, but unlike other listed states such as Cuba and Iraq, Syria has full diplomatic relations with the United States and has avoided comprehensive sanctions.

Was Syria involved in the Arab-Israeli peace process?
Yesâ??up to a point. Syria fought Israel in 1948, 1967 (when it lost the Golan Heights), 1973, and 1982 and still does not recognize the Jewish state. In 1974, the sides signed their first pact, a U.S.-brokered separation-of-forces deal. After the 1991 Gulf War, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shaara attended the Arab-Israeli peace conference in Madrid. But subsequent 1990s attempts to swap the Golan Heights for peace and normal relations failed, despite extensive U.S. involvement. Syria also housed several Palestinian terror groups opposed to Yasir Arafatâ??s 1993 peace deal with Israel. In April 2002, Syria signed onto an Arab League peace proposal, pushed by Saudi Arabia, that proposed trading â??normal relationsâ?? with Israel for an Israeli pullback to its 1967 borders, a return for Palestinian refugees, and a Palestinian state.

Does Syria sit on the U.N. Security Council?
Yes. In October 2001, the U.N.â??s Asian bloc chose Syria to take a Security Council seat, despite Western complaints about having a dictatorship linked to terrorism on such an important body. (Two-year terms on the Security Council are allocated by the U.N. regional groups.) The United States did not mount a major campaign to block the Syrian bid. Once on the U.N. Security Council, Syria raised American ire in January 2002 by comparing Israeli demolition of houses in the Gaza Strip to the World Trade Center attack and by abstaining from a March 2002 resolution calling for an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire that Syria saw as insufficiently critical of Israel.
Syrian Terrorism Against Lebanese
The Syrian army gradually invaded Lebanon starting early seventies by forming and training Syrian-Palestinian guerrillas called Sai'qa.

They started a civil war in Lebanon that led to a larger Syrian involvement in Lebanon. On October 13, 1990 the Syrian army completely occupied Lebanon capturing the Capital Beirut and the Presidential palace after air raids.

The Syrian forces have been committing all types of terrorism against the Lebanese people assassinating their leaders and massacring civilians for the past three decades. Syrians have formed, trained and sponsored terrorist groups that carried terrorist attacks against the Lebanese people, other Arab countries and Western interests in Lebanon and abroad.

Here is a part of what the Syrian Baath regime have been committing in occupied Lebanon:

 http://2la.org/act/