SYRIA sat uncomfortably in Donald Rumsfeld’s line of fire yesterday, attacked for allegedly helping members of Saddam Hussein’s regime to escape Iraq and for failing to stem military transfers to the all but vanquished leadership.

“I’ve accurately observed that they would be well advised to not provide military capabilities to Iraq,” Mr Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said. “They seem to have made a conscious decision to ignore that.

“Senior regime people are moving out of Iraq into Syria, and Syria is continuing to send things into Iraq. We find it notably unhelpful.”

Mr Rumsfeld has accused the Syrians of letting nightvision goggles into Iraq, potentially robbing the coalition forces of one of their greatest battlefield advantages.

Syria, which is already on a US shortlist of state sponsors of terrorism, has denied the allegation. It did not make it into President Bush’s “axis of evil” states — North Korea, Iran and Iraq — but is among the ranks of “state sponsors” of terrorism, with Cuba, Libya and Sudan.

Mr Rumsfeld did not say who had fled to Syria. He said that the fate of Saddam, targeted by US bunker-buster bombs along with his sons Uday and Qusay on Tuesday, was still unknown. But he made clear that some of the top Baath party members, who the Americans had hoped would answer for the collapsing Iraqi Government’s crimes against its people, had apparently found their way to Syria.

“We are getting scraps of intelligence saying that Syria has been co-operative in facilitating the move of the people out of Iraq and into Syria,” he said. “Then in some cases they stay there and find safekeeping there, in other cases they move them from Syria to some other places. We also have seen in a number of instances people from Syria moving into Iraq, unhelpfully.”

Any military transfers to Iraq violated UN sanctions against its leadership that were imposed after Saddam invaded Kuwait, provoking the Gulf War.

President Assad of Syria condemned the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington and co-operated with the United States in tracking down al-Qaeda members and other alleged terrorists. But the State Department’s 2001 annual report on patterns of global terrorism said that Syria continued to harbour a series of Palestinian militant groups opposed to the Middle East peace process, and to give them logistical support. They included Hamas, which carries out suicide attacks against targets in Israel.

Syria was also accused in the report of serving as a primary transit point for the transfer of Iranian-supplied weapons to Hezbollah.

Mr Rumsfeld said yesterday that America was worried about the possibility that the Iraqi regime might have succeeded in spiriting illegal weapons out of the country. He did not name Syria specifically.

He was clearly trying to stave off the criticism that will follow if the coalition forces fail to find illegal weapons in Iraq.

Not all of Mr Rumsfeld’s message was so downbeat yesterday. He likened the jubiliation in Iraq yesterday to that which had accompanied the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Iron Curtain.

Scenes of US Marines helping Iraqis to haul down statues of Saddam in central Baghdad were “breathtaking”, he said. Saddam would now join Hitler, Stalin, Lenin and Ceausescu “in the camp of failed and brutal dictators”.

President Bush declared the collapse of Saddam’s rule an “historic moment” as Washington forged ahead with plans for a postwar regime.

US and Iraqi officials will meet near Nasiriyah on Saturday amid fears that the speed of the US advance into Baghdad has left a power vacuum. Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, said that the meeting would begin establishing an interim Iraqi authority.

General Buford Blount, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said that his men had been through all buildings associated with Saddam’s rule and that there was “no government left to speak of”.

As pictures of joyous Iraqis desecrating Saddam’s image were beamed around the world, a profound sense of vindication swept Washington. Mr Bush watched US Marines haul down the statue of Saddam.

Tony Blair joined Downing Street staff in watching television reports of Iraqi people celebrating. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that the whole of No 10 was delighted by the scenes.

But both allies struck a determinedly cautious tone, warning that the fighting was not yet over. Ari Fleischer, Mr Bush’s spokesman, said that the President was heartened by the capitulation of Saddam’s power structure, but added: “This remains a time of utmost caution. The President knows there is great danger that could still lie ahead.”

In New York Mohammed al-Douri, Iraq’s Ambassador to the UN, said: “I have no relationship with Saddam Hussein. I have no communication with Iraq.” He added: “The game is over”, and expressed his hope that the Iraqi people would be able to live in peace.

Mr al-Douri’s comments to reporters outside his New York residence were the first admission by an Iraqi official that US-led coalition troops had overwhelmed Iraqi forces.

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