US Intelligence Officer Assures: al-Qaeda behind Syria Uprising

US Director of the National Intelligence James R. Clapper said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday the US believes that al-Qaeda in Iraq is extending its reach into Syria.

It is the first time that a top US official publicly confirms the involvement of al Qaida in Iraq, or AQI, in the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Clapper's comments came one week after a McClatchy report quoted unnamed US officials as saying that AQI was responsible for suicide bombings in Damascus in December and January, and was believed to be behind two strikes last week in Aleppo. The four attacks targeted intelligence and security compounds and killed at least 70 people.

Clapper said that AQI extremists appear to have secretly joined some of the groups of civilians and military deserters - known collectively as the Free Syrian Army

A "disturbing phenomenon that we've seen recently, apparently, is the presence of extremists who have infiltrated the opposition groups," Clapper said, adding that the opposition groups in many cases may not be aware they are there.

The fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, of which the US has been calling for, could lead to a power vacuum that al-Qaida's largest regional affiliate or other extremist groups could fill, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress. And that could allow such groups to help themselves to Syria's vast stockpiles of chemical weapons, he said.

Clapper predicted continued stalemate in Syria, with the opposition too disorganized to present a formidable threat on one side, and Iran providing arms and continued support to prop up the government on the other.

But he warned Assad's fall would be a boon to extremists.

"There is no identifiable group that would succeed him," Clapper said. "So there would be kind of a vacuum, I think, that would lend itself to extremists operating in Syria," who could potentially access the country's multiple chemical weapons sites.