The newspaper reported that the trucks crossed the boundary separating Syria with Iraq over the course of Thursday and Friday. Border guards did not inspect the contents of the trucks, which raises suspicions that they contained illicit cargo, according to Al-Mustaqbal.

Al-Mustaqbal, a publication that has long been affiliated with anti-Syrian political elements in Lebanon, quoted a spokesperson for Iraq’s interior ministry, Saad Maan, as saying that security forces were deployed along the border and were checking all vehicles coming into the country.

“Iraq today is not Saddam Hussein’s Iraq,” he said. “It is not an Iraq which resorts to the use of chemical weapons against its own people or against its neighbors.”

“These accusations are all rumors and are useless and no one believes them,” he said.