AMBUSH IN IRAQ

Dozens of Syrian soldiers who had sought refuge to the south are killed in an attack blamed on alQaida’s Iraq arm.

BAGHDAD — Dozens of Syrian soldiers who had crossed into Iraq for refuge were ambushed Monday with bombs, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades in an attack that killed 48 of them and heightened concerns that the country could be drawn into Syria’s civil war.

The fact that the soldiers were on Iraqi soil at all raises questions about Baghdad’s apparent willingness to quietly aid the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The well- coordinated attack, which Iraqi officials blamed on al-Qaida’s Iraq arm, also suggests possible coordination between the militant group and its ideological allies in Syria who rank among the rebels’ most potent fighters.

Iraqi officials said the Syrians had sought refuge through the Rabiya border crossing in northern Iraq during recent clashes with rebels and were being escorted back home through a different crossing farther south when the ambush occurred. Their convoy was struck near Akashat, not far from the Syrian border.

Ali al- Moussawi, a spokesman for Iraq’s prime minister, provided the death toll and said nine Iraqi soldiers were also killed. The Syrians had been disarmed and included some who were wounded, he told The Associated Press.

He said the soldiers had been allowed into Iraq only on humanitarian grounds and insisted that Baghdad was not picking sides in the Syrian conflict.

“We do not want more soldiers to cross our bor- ders and we do not want to be part of the problem,” alMoussawi said. “We do not support any group against the other in Syria.”

The Iraqi Defense Ministry said 10 additional Syrians were wounded in the assault. In a statement, it warned all parties in the Syrian war against bringing the fight into Iraq, saying its response will be “firm and tough.”

Iraqi officials who provided details of the attack described a carefully orchestrated assault on the Syrians’ convoy, with a senior military intelligence official saying the attackers appeared to have been tipped off ahead of time.

He and another Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely that Syrian rebels had managed to cross into Iraq to carry out the attack.

“This attack bears the hallmarks of the al-Qaida terrorist organization,” said Jassim al-Halbousi, provincial council member in Anbar, the western region where the attack happened. “The borders should be secured at the highest level of alert.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told the AP last week that he feared a victory for rebels in the Syrian civil war would create a new extremist haven and destabilize the wider Middle East, sparking sectarian wars in his own country and in Lebanon.

In Saudi Arabia, U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud alFaisal together warned Assad that they will boost support to rebels unless he steps down.

Saudi Arabia has been one of the region’s harshest critics of Assad’s regime. In his discussions with Kerry, Saud said he stressed the importance of enabling the population of Syria to exercise its “legitimate right to defend itself against the regime’s killing machine.”

Saud also complained that the Assad regime continues to get weapons from “third parties,” a veiled reference to Russia and Iran.

Kerry criticized Iran, Hezbollah and Russia for giving weapons to Assad’s forces.

The Syrian conflict started two years ago as a popular uprising against Assad’s authoritarian rule. After the government cracked down on dissent, the rebels took up arms and the revolt turned into a full-blown civil war. The United Nations estimates that more than 70,000 people have been killed.

Assad maintains his troops are fighting “terrorists” and Islamic extremists seeking to destroy Syria,.