Maybe it's time for Syrian strongman Bashar Assad to worry about whether it's a good idea to continue letting al-Qaida terrorists and Sunni-led insurgents have safe sanctuary in his country.

The United States is currently conducting its fourth large border-area offensive since May. This one, christened Operation Iron Fist, was launched over the weekend by about 1,000 U.S. troops on Sadah, a village near the Syrian border 180 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Helicopters and warplanes also struck at the village - strafing houses, buildings and cars - that the forces of terrorism were using as a staging area for violent forays deeper into Iraq. Terrorist attacks, designed to wreck the Oct. 15 nationwide referendum on Iraq's democratic constitution, had been stepped up in recent weeks.

At least 205 people were killed last week alone. And since late April, after a Shiite majority took over the Iraqi government and al-Qaida declared "all-out war" on it, suicide bombers have killed at least 1,345 people, according to the Associated Press.

This cannot go on. It's intolerable. Every time a U.S. offensive clears out a border enclave the terrorists scamper back to Syria to regroup - wait for the troops to leave - and then take back control of the border town they'd just been chased out of.

If Assad can't or won't put an end to this, then why shouldn't the United States rout the terrorists from Syria's side of the border?

There should be no safe sanctuary for al-Qaida and Sunni terrorists on either side of the border. And if that means invading Syrian territory - simultaneously exposing Assad's weakness and humiliating him - then so be it.

To defeat the terrorists, the fight must be carried to them. They can be allowed no permanent sanctuaries.