Al-Qaeda militants have been moving in to Syria from neighboring Iraq to take part in operations against the Syrian army and security forces, a top Iraqi border official told the al-Afaq TV channel on Saturday.
"In the past two months we have arrested tens of al-Qaeda members as they attempted to cross into Syria," the official said.
He also said "three buses and a truck containing many weapons" had been seized, RIA Novosti reported.
The official said the militants had been crossing from northern Iraq's Ninawa province and western Iraq's Anbar region.
These two areas, he said, had become "land bridges for the transportation of weapons and ammunition from the huge arsenal built up over its years of existence in Iraq."
More than 2,200 people have been killed in the crackdown on anti-government protests in Syria since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime broke out in March, according to UN estimates.